Destiny Intervenes
by navnit
Summary: Tony finds an unconscious woman on his landing pad. Darcy rescues a confused stranger in New Mexico. Natsasha fishes an almost drowned Captain Rogers out of the Potomac. Destiny has decided to give them a second chance. Post CA:WS.
1. The Woman On The Landing Pad

**Destiny Intervenes**

**The Woman On The Landing Pad**

Tony's eyes opened slowly as he took in his surroundings, he had had a good night's sleep which was a rarity these days; waking up in cold sweat with visions of Pepper falling to her death into a flaming abyss was usually the norm for his night life recently. But Pepper was right beside him sleeping peacefully and for once _not_ the first to wake up.

He had secured down time for both of them; almost a months worth, both of them were recovering from serious medical procedures and needed the rest. The stabilizing of the Extremis virus in his girlfriends blood hadn't taken that long, he had already been working on the formula before Killian decided to attempt to wreck his life.

Tony himself had just had surgery to remove the rest of the shrapnel attempting to pierce his heart, he still got a shock every time he was shirtless in front of a mirror and didn't have a blue nightlight shining in his eyes, instead there was just a thin four inch scar at the center of his chest were the arc reactor had plugged in, to be honest while the was still residual phantom pains from the surgery, he had never felt lighter.

Tony slowly and carefully extracted himself from Peppers clutching embrace and slid of his bed to pad out into the bathroom, after taking care of his body's needs he took a moment to examine his chest and to make sure once again that he was really fixed and that this wasn't just an extremely cruel dream.

Tony sighed as he thought about the decisions he had made, Peppers supposed death at the hands of Killian, his inability to save her and the piercing pain in his chest at the thought of going on without her made him make some seriously life changing decisions. His experience in Afghanistan at the hands of the Ten Rings had forced him to make his first one in which he had taken up arms against these terrorist organizations but facing the prospect of life without Pepper had him making another, he had blown up all of his suits as a present for her but hadn't let her into his revelation that he had had until later on at which point his Pepper had sat him down and talked him into reconsidering hanging up the gloves, both literally and figuratively. She had patiently explained to him that if this is what he really wanted to do that she would support him wholeheartedly but if he was doing this with a sense of guilt at her getting hurt and almost dying then she wasn't going to have it.

She told him about all the good he had done as Ironman, about all the good he could still do. The world still needs Ironman, she had said, and she knew that as long as it needed him, he would want to help.

Tony had then broke down and confessed to her that he was truly terrified that one day all of this, all of _Tony Stark_ and _Ironman_ would finally manage to drive her away, that he would lose her because he was trying to make the world better. And he told her there and then that he could not and refused to live without her light in his life.

She had then placed her hand on his cheek and promised solemnly that as long as he loved her, she would be right here for however long he wanted, she had known what she was getting into from the start and while throughout the years as his PA and girlfriend she had faced death, pain, anger, immerse sadness, and even hate towards those who harmed them, in all that time she had never once regretted letting him in. She loved him and would always do, so long as he would have her.

Then she had placed her hands in his and asked him to fix her.

Tony had immediately started work on stabilizing the Extremis and then ordered Jarvis to begin synthesis on his new suit, he was now starting from scratch and he was determined to leave the past where it belonged.

He had Pepper and she was going to be fine and he was never going to let her get hurt again.

_'Sir, there is a woman outside the penthouse suite.'_

JARVIS' voice was soft in the bathroom not wanting to wake the sleeping Ms Potts. Tony frowned, they were off work, who was bothering them now.

"Tell them to go away, J. We're on break." he turned to go back to Pepper but the AI spoke again.

_'I'm sorry I was unclear sir, the woman is on the landing pad sir, and she is unconscious.'_

Tony took that in for a moment and then sighed shaking his head, he knew it was too good to be true; a break from work? Time with Pepper unhindered by her meetings and trips to foreign countries? A quiet recuperation? There had to be a catch.

Tony walked slowly out of his bedroom. "JARVIS why is there a woman lying unconscious on my landing pad?" he asked conversationally as he looked out at said woman through the glass wall facing the roof.

He walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a gauntlet for his right hand, his suit wasn't completely rendered but some parts were ready and he wasn't stupid enough to run out unarmed to rescue a damsel in distress, no he had had too many experiences with vengeful women to not really trust them not to kill him if his back was turned.

_'I'm afraid I do not have the answer to that question, sir.'_

Tony rolled his eyes. "Great," the AI could really be unhelpful if he wanted to be.

"JARVIS, apprise Ms Potts of the situation and tell her to stand back until I give the all clear."

_'Yes, sir.' _

"And get the guest room ready," he added because despite his reservations he knew that this woman was not going to be a threat, his world didn't work that way.

Tony still walked cautiously up to the prone figure; she was wearing what looked to be a uniform of some sort, Khaki green fitted jacket and pencil skirt, a bit on the conservative side and when he turned her limp figure over to look at her face he saw an inner shirt and tie under her buttoned up jacket.

The lapels of her jacket were pinned with emblems bearing an insignia he faintly recognized and her shoulder length hair was surrounding her face in an elegant arrangement though some of it had pulled loose and become unkempt. But Tony ignored all of this because the moment he laid eyes on her face he instantly recognized her.

"Aunt Peg?" he gasped in wonder as he looked down at, much younger then he ever remembered her being, Peggy Carter.


	2. The Soldier in the Sand

**Destiny Intervenes**

**The Soldier in the Sand**

It was almost twilight and Darcy trudged back up the street to the research facility SHIELD had provided them, they were back in New Mexico in the same town in which a year ago she had witnessed a god and huge metallic demon from hell duke it out decimating each and every building that was standing.

Jane had been continuing her attempt at finding a way to access the Bifrost and she had been very close to cracking it until SHIELD had ordered them to pack up and move, once again, but this time it was to another research facility. They had told them the bare minimum; the thing that Selvig was working on had been stolen and he had been brain washed by a vengeful Norse God of Mischief and because of his association with the Jane and her Loki could come after them so for safety reasons of they had been whisked to Tromsø of all places, not that Jane hadn't been completely in love with their research labs, but they had been so disconnected, heck she wasn't even able to check her Facebook status and she _lived_ on Facebook.

Needless to say it had been harrowing on _her_ let alone how it had been for _Jane_; her only parental figure had been brainwashed and the man she was in love with, scratch that God she was in love with, having not had any contact with her since disappearing into the swirly portal thingy, had arrived back on earth, defended it _again_, saved it from his temper tantrum throwing brother _again_, and left without so much as a message to her _again_. Needless to say she was not a bundle of joy to be around especially when her blood sugar was low, hence the midday Pop tart run.

She was almost at their snazzy new SHIELD funded research lab when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. The research facility was located at the very edge of the podunk town they were situated in, behind it was a huge expanse of desert stretching as far as her bright blue eye could see, but there just at the end of her visage, at the very horizon she thought she could make out some thing, a speck, she couldn't be sure until...

"JANE!" Darcy yelled making the astrophysicist drop her fifteenth cup of coffee in fright. "JANE! GET OUT HERE, JANE!" Normally she would have ignored her intern slash assistant and kept focusing on her work, the only thing that kept her mind off of _things_..., but the absolute urgency of her voice, _aside_ from the volume, made Jane get up and take a look.  
>When she got outside the lab info the bright midday sunlight of New Mexico she caught Darcy staring dumbfounded at something behind the lab off into the distance.<p>

"Darcy what-?" she asked but Darcy snapped out of what ever haze she was in a grabbed her arm and yanked her forwards to stand next to her. "Hey-" she protested half-heartedly.

Darcy just spoke in a strangled excited whisper pointing at the horizon. "Tell me that that's not a mirage Jane," she demanded her urgently. "Tell me I'm not seeing that because of the heat and my overactive imagination."

Jane squinted out at the vast expanse of sand for a moment and then her eyes widened almost comically. "Ohmygod."

Darcy didn't look at her, just sighed in relief that she wasn't hallucinating. "It's real right? There's someone there right?" she asked her voice rising excitedly.

"Yes," gasped Jane bouncing on her feet Darcys excitement infectious. She risked a careful glance to her best friend. "Do you think...?" she refused to say his name out loud lest she jinx it.

Darcy shrugged. "Maybe, but whether it's him or not it's still someone right? Someone whose probably been walking for miles? Someone who needs our help?"

Darcy could see Jane nodding along with all of her suggestions enthusiastically but she could also see the hope shining in her eyes; she really thought it was Muscles and she knew that Jane would be even crushed then before if it turned out not to be the Hotness Who Shall Not Be Named.

"Now Jane stop that," she reprimanded sternly. "We don't know who that is but I really don't think it's him, I mean why didn't he just fly here?" she demanded her. "Well he might have lost his Mew Mew again but I don't think so, he loved Mew Mew and to lost it again? Yeah I don't think so." she continued. "So we are going to take the van out and we're going to help the poor bastard out the but we are agreeing that he is not God of Disappointment okay?" She finished with her hands on her hips looking expectancy at her friend slash boss.

Jane just nodded. "Okay. Come on, let's go," she she ran off inside. "I'll get the keys."

Darcy ran after her depositing the bag of pop tarts on a table and looking at a still excitable Jane who was hunting for the keys.

"You didn't hear one word I said did you?" she accused the astrophysicist.

"No," agreed Jane readily. "Found it," she exclaimed holding the keys up like it was the key to the dead man's chest or something. "Come on let's go rescue the handsome stranger - I mean - uh - lost stranger out in the desert." She beat a hasty retreat to the van as Darcy narrowed her eyes at her.

"I swear Jane I'm not cleaning up after you when you wake up blubbering in the middle of the night and throw half eaten pop tarts every where because you miss your alien boyfriend," she declared as she got into the passenger seat and buckled up. "Not again, I promise you."

"Uh huh," Jane assured as she she started the engine and sped off out into the desert.

But despite Darcys insistence she knew that if Jane did do on a midnight pop tart binge she would clean after her friend as many times as necessary because whiles Darcy didn't have a lot of people to love the people she did love got her utmost loyalty and Jane was the most loved out of all her loved ones yes even her recovered iPod could not compare."

So they went; down the tumbling valley, into the heart of the desert. It was like a remake of The Mummy or something but this time the supernatural being they were hoping to find was not some centuries dead Pharaohs Priest.

Within ten minutes their target was in sight thanks to Jane's crazy driving and soon they were stopping next to him, it was obvious even before they had stopped that they both knew it wasn't the God of Thunder that was walking towards civilisation. Oh the guy looked ripped sure with his khaki shit wrapped around his head his abs on display but his hair was short almost military crop and as soon as he saw the van he stopped walking and sort of fell on his knees and slowly onto his face and if Darcy knew one thing about Muscles its that he didn't fall on his face, not unless hit by Jane's van.

Darcy tried to get to him in time to catch him even jumping out before the van had completely stopped but in the end she approached the man as he was lying flat on the ground face down, still breathing but clearly exhausted.

Darcy knelt next to him on the ground and looked at him for a moment afraid to touch. Jane came over to her side and looked down at the man curious and obviously disappointed.

"Well," she said. "It's not him." She stated the obvious but seemed to be taking it really well, maybe what Darcy had said had gotten into her head some.

She turned her attention back to the fallen soldier, because her was a soldier by the looks of his clothing, although she doubted there was any sort of military posted this side of New Mexico, maybe he was Air Force? She shrugged to herself.  
>Finally having had enough of her hesitation she reached out and turned him over onto his back to look at his face. He was beautiful; in a word, he was handsome with bright blue eyes, right now glazed over, short cropped hair that told of one time being styled to make the ladies swoon a chiseled face and a ripped body that could've made ol' Muscles jealous.<br>His lips though we're obviously dry, he was dehydrated and his breathing was shallow.

Jane nodded. "I'll get some water," and she rushed back to the van while Darcy tried to get his attention.

When he continued to look straight ahead she decided to examine him again. The shirt he had wrapped around his face had fallen down to cover his left arm and she was just about to lift it off of him when she caught a glint of silver at his neck.

"Dog tags," she said to herself. Identification. Yay. And she reached for them lifting it off his chest to examine the engraving.

"Sergeant James B. Barnes?" she read. "Howling Commando?"

All the Captain America comic books she had nicked from her brothers collection flashed before her eyes and she took as deep breath. Howling Commandos. James Barnes. Captain America's best friend. And as she processed this on name came to mind the affectionate and familiar name that the comic Cap had called his friend and she couldn't help but blurt it out her.

"Bucky?" she asked in astonishment and finally gasped as Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes focused on her.


	3. The Hero in the Potomac

_A/N: Hey guys, I wanted to point out to those who were taking notes, that I left out the events of Thor: The Dark World. This was intentional on my part, the events of Winter Soldier and Ironman 3 has already taken place but I will mostly try to incorporate Thor 2 into this story, Destiny Intervenes is now officially AU sorry if anybody got confused by that but I couldn't incorporate post Thor 2 in my story. Anyways thanks for all the wonderful reviews, I may not reply to them but I read and appreciate each and everyone of you alls feedback. Now onto chapter 3._

**Destiny Intervenes**

**The Hero in the Potomac**

Triskelion headquarters of SHIELD was basically in ruins, the fall of three Helicarriers on and around it had completely rendered it useless, fortunately the massive file dump of all of SHIELD and HYDRA secrets, courtesy of the Black Widow, on the Internet had rendered _SHIELD_ useless.

Triskelion had been for all intents and purposes declared abandoned but there were a few former agents still moving around the complex, it was their last ditch effort to secure some of the secrets that had been, amazingly, not archived digitally. They were operating under orders of Former Deputy Director Hill to secure all loose data and report to her and then they were to go their own way until SHIELD managed to find their footing again.

Soon though they noticed the main gate to the facility open granting access to a black clad figure in a motorcycle the driver stopped just in front of the lobby and dismounted smoothly removing the helmet to reveal long red curls and a pale white face with strikingly green eyes and blood red lips. One of the Agents immediately descended the stairs to greet the formidable Spy known as Black Widow.

"Agent Romanoff? This is unexpected," he said earning a raised eyebrow in answer he gulped but powered through. "we were just finishing up."

Romanoff nodded once. "Hill sent me to wrap this up, the press has been alerted to your presence here, their ETA is twenty minutes, gather all relevant intel and clear out before they arrive."

The Agent nodded nervously and started back up the stairs to inform his team of the development. Romanoff started to follow but was stopped short as she heard the sound of a long drawn out scream, her ears super sensitive because of her Black Widow enhancements immediately focused on the sound and turned to the bridge she had just crossed on her motorcycle. She glanced up and was surprised to see a human shaped red blue blur falling from the sky, she raced outside with the Agent behind her alerted to her alarm and they watched as the screaming man fell straight into the Potomac.

Natasha turned to the Agent and said. "Get a rescue team here right now," she ordered and without waiting to see him nod she ran for the bridge railing and vaulted over coiling her body midair into a graceful dive and plunged into the icy cold morning water of the Potomac.

She resurfaced gasping for air but didn't hesitate in kicking her legs and swimming in the direction she had determined the man had fallen, her enhanced physiology allowed her to cover ground quickly ignoring the stabbing pains of the cold water and finally she reached the place where she could see a speck of bright blue and red, thank god for his choice in bright apparel.

She dived under and clasped her hands around his middle kicking of the ground making slow but steady progress towards the surface, if she were a normal female she would have no chance of pulling what was obviously at least a 200 pound weighing man up to the surface of the Potomac, but a normal female Natasha Romanoff was not and eventually they broke the surface of the water Natasha gasping for breath and finding a SHIELD chopper hovering over them.

The Agent she had ordered to get help was hanging out the side of the helicopter, he tossed her a rope with a harness which she efficiently fastened around her unconscious companion and held on to him giving the Agent the go ahead to lift them up.

The pilot went up and they were soon deposited back on the bridge only now she was soaking wet. The exertion had took a

lot out of her and she was unable to hold her charge up any longer, she slowly lowered him down on the tarmac and flopped down on the ground beside him looking up at the sky trying to figure out where in the hell he had fallen from and trying to catch her breath.

The chopper had landed only yards away from her and as it powered down she heard the hurried footsteps of the Agent approach. Natasha sat up and scrutinized him. He was looking at her expectantly wringing his hands in anticipation it was obvious that this was not what he expected to be doing on the last day as a SHIELD Agent.

"Get me Hill," she ordered swiftly. "And lock this facility down as much as it is able. We're not leaving as quickly as we thought." All this she said as fast as she could before turning to the unconscious man beside her and starting CPR not looking to see of her orders were being followed.

After a couple of puffs of air to his lungs and a few compression's to his chest the guy took a deep shuddering breath and expelled a mouth full, or lungful, of water and started shaking looking around him in utter confusion.

"Agent Romanoff?" said a timid voice behind her. She glared back and saw the Agent offering her a cell phone. "Agent Hill, ma'am." She snatched the phone from him with a cursory 'Don't call me ma'am, _ever_' and put it to her ear.

"Hill?"

"Romanoff," came the reply from the ever eloquent Agent Hill.

"You have any idea where Rogers is?"

"Captain Rogers is currently on a _personal_ mission looking to locate AWOL war hero and _unwilling_ HYDRA operative James Barnes aka The Winter Soldier."

Natasha rolled her eyes at Hill's formality.

"You got eyes on him?"

"Uh, Yeah I'm looking at his location right now on one of Starks holoscreens. He's in New York apparently. Why?" Finally Hill got curious enough to pry.''

"If he's in New York," Natasha sighed exasperated. "Then why did he suddenly fall out of the sky and into the Potomac at Triskelion?"

"What?!" She heard Maria yell out, Natasha smirked anything that got Hill to break her cool was alright in the books for her.

"You heard me," she replied. "if Rogers is in New York then why am I looking down at Captain America here in DC." And sure enough, the man that she had just fished out of the Potomac, just breathed new life into, was none other than Steve Rogers; the Star Spangled Man with a Plan, Captain America.

HTHTHTHTH


	4. The Billionaires Aunt Peg

**DESTINY INTERVENES**

**The Billionaires Aunt Peg**

When Tony gave the all clear Pepper opened the door and ran up the ramp to where her boyfriend was leaning next to a beautiful but unconscious brunette wearing if she was not mistaken, and she rarely was, a 1940s SSR uniform issued to special female agents.

She was confused as the Strategic Scientific Research Division had been disbanded soon after the loss of Captain America after his battle with Red Skull, the only person wearing the uniform had shed it to take part in creating a new uniform with a new badge that read Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement And Logistics Division more commonly known as SHIELD.

Peppers hyper observant brain took in and cataloged all these important factors in the seconds it took for her to look the woman up and down, she even cataloged the fact that this woman bore a striking resemblance to that female founder of SHIELD that she had been thinking off.

She squeezed Tony's shoulder lightly. "Tony?" she asked expectantly waiting for an answer.

"It's Aunt Peg, Pepper," he said still staring disbelievingly at the woman before him. "It's Peggy Carter."

Peppers rational brain warred with the brain that had witnessed a _god_, a _giant green rage monster _and a man almost a _century_ old defeat another god and _aliens_ from outer space. Her rational mind still won and she gently laid a hand on Tony's cheek.

"Tony, Margaret Carter is in a nursing home-"

"Dealing with Alzheimer's and soon might not be with us I know," he said shortly. "But Pep I'm telling you this is Aunt Peg, I remember her wearing this same uniform at one time for Halloween while I had been dressed up as Captain America by my dad. She had secretly brought another costume for me knowing how much I hated Dad comparing me to Cap so when she took me trick or treating I was dressed as The Tin Man and she pretended to be Dorothy, it was actually what gave me the idea to make the Mark I."

"Maybe she's a relative?"

Tony shook his head. "No I can feel that it's her. Pepper," and Pepper almost gasped at the emotion that she saw in his eyes. "She was the only light in the darkness of my childhood aside from my work. Our festive celebrations were less about family get together's and more about organizing the next hunt for Captain America. But Peggy was different, yes I assume the men shunt her to go play with the kid while they made the plans but she _did_ play with me, she was really torn up about losing Cap you know and she found solace in entertaining me just like I found solace in her, I'm not ashamed to say I developed quite a crush on her. I even told her so once."

Pepper smiled scraping her nails on his scalp as she ran her fingers through his hair. "Of course you did," she responded amused.

Tony effortlessly slid his hands underneath 'Aunt Pegs' legs and shoulders and lifted her up Pepper leading the way and opening the door to allow Tony to slowly settle her down on to the couch facing the city outside the window.

Tony knelt down beside Peggy and Pepper hovered. "Does she need medical attention?"

"JARVIS?" Tony merely asked of the ever-present AI.

_'Sir, she doesn't have any evidence of trauma and my initial diagnostics only indicate a loss of consciousness."_

Tony sighed relieved. "Well that's that I guess," he said rubbing his still sleepy eyes.

_'Might I suggest Sir, that you take a DNA sample from the supposed Miss Carter to be sure that she is who you suspect. I will be able to run the sample in the Labs."_

Tony nodded. "Yeah all right, but call Banner up here, I don't think I'm qualified to stick someone with a needle."

_'As you wish sir. '_

**HTHTHTHTH**

Peggy felt a little pin prick of a needle piercing her skin just inside her elbow and forced herself to wake up, she looked up at a man with slightly graying hair and glasses who seemed to concentrating on something very intently and hadn't realized her state of awareness.

She looked to her right and saw another man with a goatee and perfectly styled hair kneeling next to the couch she was lying on with on of her hands in his. 'Howard?' she thought idly but she was not sure. The red headed woman standing next to the Howard clone was looking right at her, her finger had frozen over the kneeling man's hair which she had been combing through, ti was obvious that she had been caught by surprise at Peggy's awareness. Before she could say anything though the slight pain at her elbow reminded her of why she had woken up and she glanced down at her arm to see a needle sticking out of it the syringe half full of blood and her reflexes kicked in.

Peggy ripped her self out of the Howard lookalikes grip and scooted her self back an into the furthest arm of the couch pulling her legs in and pulling out her back up side arm out of her leg holster. She aimed the weapon at them all watching their arms lift up warily in surrender.

"W-Who are you p-people?" her throat was dry. "What are you doing?" she looked at the still kneeling man who looked so much like.. "Howard? What are you...?"

"Aunt Peg calm down," Howard said. "We're not trying to hurt you and I'm not Howard, Peg, I'm his son Tony."

"Tony? But Howard and Maria aren't even marri... " she trailed off looking thoughtfully to her arm. "Why were you drawing blood if you didn't want to harm me? Who do you work for? Is it HYDRA? Because I am warning you I am a very important Agent of the SSR and I'm sure the Commandos are even now searching for me. You don't want to get on the bad side of Captain America do you? Seeing as the last time he destroyed your entire base of operations." She knew it was a risky lie but most of the world still did not know of Cap's dissapearance and maybe she could use the fact to her advantage.

Howards 'son' looked affronted. "HYDRA? Exactly what about us screams Psychotic German Nazi organization?"

"Miss Carter, or do you prefer Agent?" said tthe red head bravely. "Please. My name is Pepper Potts and I assure you that we are not affiliated with any HYDRA organization." She slowly approached, Peggy had her gun fully trained on the woman but she didn't pull the trigger. "Now why don't you give me that gun and we can talk this through, we mean you no harm." And she watched as if from third person as she allowed this Pepper? To lift the gun out of her hand and set it aside not training it on her as she was expecting.

Peggy let out a sigh of defeat. "Well I guess that's that then." She looked to the guy who'd been extracting her blood. "So what's her ability then," she asked indicating Pepper. "she one of those gifted people like James Howlett?" When no one commented she went on. "Oh come on she just completely calmed me down and made me give up my weapon leaving me entirely defenseless. What _are_ you?" she asked again looking at Pepper. "An empath or something."

Pepper just smiled and shook her head. "I doubt you are totally defenseless if even half the stories about you are true."

"And Peppers not a mutant or anything," said Tony standing up beside her. "What you just experienced Aunt Peg; is literally, and it is literal this time Bruce, my Peppers - heh - _disarming_ personality," he said with a completely straight face and smirked as the other two groaned at his pun. "She's just awesome like that." He declared and planted a kiss on the red heads cheek causing her to blush.

Peggy watched all this interaction with an interested and cautious eye, she was still looking for an escape route but realized that she was looking out at a huge city full of skyscrapers and she appeared to be sitting inside one their penthouses so apparently the only way out was down and did not feel like testing her non existent avion capabilities at this time.

Finally Tony turned to her and said. "So Aunt Peg my butler found you unconscious on the roof of my tower, any idea how you got there?"

Peggy closed her eyes for a moment and it all came rushing back; the ongoing search for Steve, Howard pushing them to the brink of exhaustion, Steve's promise to meet them for their dance, she had showed up two weeks after his crash at the pub and waited all through the night until closing, tears slowly falling until she had no more left to cry.

And then she had made one of the most stupidest decisions of her life, her alcohol ridden brain wrought with grief over the loss of Steve she had climbed out of the window of the hotel room into the balcony and looked down at the ground twelve stories below, she had closed her eyes and let go of the railing and then she had woken up amazingly sober and alive on the couch of, if he was to be believed, Howard Starks son.

She didn't tell them all that though, she didn't trust them so she stayed purposefully vague. "Steve was gone, we searched for him all over but couldn't find him," she looked straight into Tony's eyes and she had a hard time not admitting that the compassion in them reminded her so much of the flirting caring and fun loving scientist that she had once known. If there was one thing could admit it was that if Howard Stark ever had a son he would look exactly like Tony did. "All I remember really," she continued. "Is falling and then waking up here." She looked around the room desolately.

Tony frowned in concern. "Falling? Were you pushed." But all Peggy did was shrug, but then Tony brightened. "Well we've got one good news for you, we actually found old Capsicle in the Arctic recently and he's all thawed out and back to be Spangley and Planny and Captain Americany again."

Only one thing registered to Peggy in Tony's little diatribe there. "You found Steve?" she asked standing up and swaying on the spot.

Tony rushed to help her. "Whoa whoa, Aunt Peg. You gotta take it easy, you were just unconscious remember?"  
>Peggy shook her head adamantly while clutching Tony's arm tightly trying to regain her balance. "No if you found Steve you need to take me to him, I'll tell you anything you want to know, if he's alive..." she gasped her eyes hollow with grief. "I'll do anything to see him again please." She watched as they understood that she still thought they worked for HYDRA.<p>

And then Pepper was there again taking Peggys other hand and with soft words and explanations calmed her down enough to take her seat again. Peggy still had a hard time believing that the other woman didn't possess some superhuman ability.

Tony knelt down next to her looking earnestly up at her in adoration. "Aunt Peg, we'll get Steve here, he can meet you no problem but you have to know that what ever you remember happened over seventy years ago, this is the year 2014 and a lot has changed."

The shock of that revelation took a while to register but she shook it off. "Prove it." she insisted. Pepper had worked her magic enough to make Peggy pick up her usual persona of aloof ice queen SSR Agent and she was more suspicious then ever.  
>"Umm okay," Tony said looking at Pepper who shrugged as did Bruce. "JARVIS?," he said looking up. "Any ideas?" have asked the ceiling hopefully making Peggy think he had completely lost it until someone answered back.<p>

_"Of course sir,"_ it said to Tony and then addressed her.

"Agent Carter a lot has happened since the last time you were conscious in this world," a see through picture appeared in front of her out of nowhere, Peggy had absolutely no idea where it was being projected from and there was no visible screen for the projection to take place on, it was just there sort of like magic.  
>"World War lasted two more years after the Captain crashed his plane with the Tesseract onboard." she watched with tears in her eyes a hand on her mouth as a large Japanese city was bombed out of existence by some devastating weapon. She soon realized what that weapon was. Howard had kept a side project during the war in which he would consult with someone named Oppenheimer and Fermi and other Scientists and Army Generals about the creation of a bomb that would wipe out an entire city. It was supposed to be as a last resort.<p>

"They did it," she said softly as tears said down her cheeks. "They actually did it."

"The nuclear bombings of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki decided the signing of surrender of Japanese troops the casualties were astronomical, we still feel the shock of the actions our country took to protect its people." Peggy just shook her head as she read the total losses suffered.

"After that there was another notable war in which our country took part in an that was the Vietnam War, North Vietnam lead by communist leaders sought to seize control of the country with South Vietnam aided by us trying to make sure that the country didn't fall into communists hands. In the end it was a pointless war fought for pointless reasons and the US chose to withdraw from Vietnam but not before 58,220 US citizens had died for nothing." Peggy was surprised to detect a hint of bitterness in the Voice from the Ceilings voice, she herself was just staring in disbelief at the atrocities that man kind continued to inflict upon each other.

JARVIS took Peggy through a crash course in American History since World War 2 and her significant role in it. "I Helped found Shield?" He took her through the various political party changes and presidential elections, he showed her the leaps and bounds that technology had made during the last seventy years and the major role that Stark Industries and Tony Stark himself had played in it.

After about an hour of explanations finally the voice shut off, she was sure that there was a lot she still didn't know but after all that the one thing she did know was that these people in the room were people she might be able to trust.

**HTHTHTHTH**

Tony was pacing back and forth holding his phone to his ear and muttering to himself. Sometime during Peggys history lesson the man who had taken her blood, Bruce?, had left to get started on verifying her DNA. Finally after his twelfth pass Pepper stepped in and stopped him looking him straight in the eye.

"What are you doing Tony?" she asked as Peggy finished her brief introduction to the new century through JARVIS and turned to look at them both.

"I'm trying to get a hold of Spangles but he just isn't picking up," he replied exasperated. "I knew trusting him with a Starkphone was expecting too much from him, I should had given him one of those phones built for old people then maybe Capsicle could actually be bothered to pick up."

"You want to talk to Steve?" she reaffirmed.

Tony nodded. "Didn't I just say that?" he asked rhetorically. Pepper chose not to comment, when Tony got nervous he got snarky. She just rolled her eyes at him.

"Well you do realize that his commanding officer does actually work for us as head of security right," she asked him. "I bet Maria could get us in contact with his comms."

Tonys eyes widened in surprise. "Hill works for us? I honestly did not know that."

Pepper nodded. She had surmised as such. "Well if you'd pay attention to what I have to say about the running of your company then you would know that after SHIELD's downfall she came to apply for a job with us."

Tony blinked at that. "Huh," he said. "So do you think she still keeps tabs on our ol' American Boy Scout?"

Pepper nodded. "I know she does. SHIELD isn't permanently down as you well know Tony, she wanted reassurances that she would be able to help rebuild the organization while spending her down time shaping up Stark Industries Security."

"Stark Industries Security is JARVIS and he does not need shaping up," replied Tony pointedly but eventually sighed. "Fine if Hill can get a hold of Cap then tell him to pick up his damn phone, I didn't give it to him for appearance sake it has a purpose."

Pepper merely rolls her eyes at him again and moves to the next room to make the call.

It the meanwhile Peggy had gathered a few things in relation to Tony and Peppers interaction. Pepper Potts seems to bring new meaning to the phrase 'Behind every successful man...' because she seemed to be a force or nature when handling Stark Industries business and when handling Stark as well.

The second thing she noticed was that despite his playboy like behavior and debonair appearance, so similar to his father's, and despite Peppers nonchalant countenance, they both seemed completely devoted to each other; the subtle touches, the lingering glances, the faces lighting up at seeing each other, the constant need to be close to each other.

If she ever saw a couple more in love with each other then she couldn't remember, surprisingly it was the lack of any public displays of affection that showed exactly how much they cared about each other. As an SSR Agent she had become fairly adept at reading peoples body and facial expressions and their unconscious gestures spoke way more than any grand gestures of love could ever reveal. Theirs was a quiet and enduring love and Peggy was enjoying being in the presence of such commitment.

The most important thing that Peggy got from their interaction was that they were trying to contact Steve, they were trying to get Steve to come here and meet her and she was suddenly all of a thither.

Peggy tried to scold herself that she was better than this that she was above such teenage school girl antics but then her subconscious decided to remind her of the time when she had shot at Steve for kissing another girl despite him not being at fault. What ever she was, Agent Carter was not above petty and childish antics when it came to the Captain and now it had been more than two years since he had last actually seen her.

Before he had crashed into that godforsaken ocean she had been pretty sure of his feelings for her and hers for him and while having grieved for him her feelings had not changed much, as she had discovered upon learning of his survival. But_ he_ had had two plus years to get over her or find someone else, she probably wasn't even alive now as far as he knew so he would've had to mourn and eventually move on, what would happen when they finally did meet? Would he be happy to see her? Striken? Sad? Resentful? All these thoughts swirling around in her head made her almost nauseous again and she tried to control her breathing but failed miserably as Tony again knelt down next to her.

"Aunt Peg?"

Peggy couldn't help but smile at him, it should have been disconcerting; the man looked closer to being her elder brothers age and yet he called her Aunt, it was endearing. She managed to control her minor panic attack and focus on the man in front of her.

"Why Aunt?" she asked fidgeting a little but not taking her eyes of him.

Tony shrugged. "It's what I've always called you," he said nonchalantly. "You were the only adult I knew who I respected without being told to." Her eyes widened at his admission. "I know you don't know me and that I wasn't even born when you were whisked away from your present and into mine but I grew up with you being a constant fixture in my life."

Tony broke eye contact and looked away as if ashamed of his admissions but his voice carried on even as Peggy felt her heart melting. "Truth is Aunt Peg; you were more of a constant in my life than even my own parents were. True you were mostly over at Stark Mansion to indulge dad in his latest scheme to find Captain America, _his greatest achievement_, but you always took out time to visit with _me_."

Tony smiled at a memory even now not looking into her eyes. "You even took me trick or treating once and gave me another costume to wear when I didn't like the one my dad chose."

Peggy was still astonished at the fact that one of her closest friends, Howard Stark, considered his input in Project Rebirth to be his greatest achievement as opposed to him being able to sire such an admirable son, and had thought Howard better than that, but then again she hadn't ever thought herself to be suicidal, she guessed that losing Steve affected them more than they had realized. Amazingly she already was feeling a connection towards Tony, something that should be there but isn't right now. She shook off her thoughts and looked at Tony.

"What costume did Howard make you where?" She had a feeling she already knew though. And sure enough...

"What else?" Tony snorted his tone as far from amused as he could make it. "I was dressed as the 'Star Spangled Man with the Plan' Vibranium shield and all, but you had hidden a Tin Man and Dorothy costume from him and when we went out you help me switch and we had one of the most enjoyable Halloweens of my life." Tony smirked a little at the memory. "It's a bit ironic I guess..."

But before she could ask what the irony was Pepper returned talking into a small rectangular device. "Yes, I know Maria. Yes I'm fully aware that he is in the field but this is important." Pepper sighed and her gaze suddenly hardened and Peggy caught a glimpse of a woman in Pepper who definitely knew how much power she held in her seemingly dainty hands; Peggy recognized the look because she saw it more often than not in the mirror daily.

"Miss Hill I know we give you a lot of leeway in acknowledgment of your previous affiliation with a organization we sympathized with but I do hope I do not need to remind you that I am the CEO of the company you currently work for. Now if you have a means to put me through to Captain Rogers then I want you to put me through and I do hope you will not debate with me on this any more, I believe my orders are clear."

Peggy glanced down at Tony to gauge his reaction to the verbal dressing down of one of his employees and frowned to see a hint of approval, and was that arousal?, in his his eyes.

Pepper though sighed as the line was clearly put through. "Steve. Thank God, we've been trying to reach you for ages." She looked at Tony and frowned. "Oh he didn't did he? Well I'll be having a talk with him later and what did I say about calling me ma'am? Exactly."

Peggy couldn't help smile as she remembered Steve's earnest mannerisms as the gentleman in him used to shine through and flatter her Briton heart.

Pepper though looked to Tony and after an curt nod spoke to Steve again. "Steve I know you must be busy but there is someone here who wants to speak to you. Oh, I think you'll remember her very fondly."

And Peggy watched in horror as the flat device Pepper was talking was offered to her to speak into. And as Peggy looked down at the piece of plastic a familiar voice floated up to her and pierced her heart almost causing it to stop. "Hello? Hello? Who's there?" Called the unmistakable voice of Steve Rogers.

**HTHTHTHTH**


	5. The Intern and the Electrocutor

**XKXKXKXKXK**

**Destiny Intervenes**

**The Intern and the Electrocuter**

Jane came around the van with a water bottle in hand to see Darcy dumbstruck and staring at the fallen soldiers dog tags.

"Darcy what...?" she asked hesitantly and when her friend/assistant/intern looked up from her stupor she gave a hesitant smile and showed her that water bottle. "I got the water."

Darcy shook herself awake and nodded at her grabbing the bottle and slowly tipping the water into his mouth whispering soothing words as she made him drink.

As far as Jane could actually see the man was completely out of it; who knows how long he had been traveling in the hot desert dehydrated, he looked to be delirious which was not surprising considering the heat and lack of water, his eyes were glassy and he didn't seem to be able to focus on either one of them.

Jane eventually took to observing her interns interactions with the guy. It was clear to anyone who knew them to understand that while Jane was the elder it was Darcy who was more street wise and more social, she knew what to do and how to talk with people. It was no surprise that when it came time to teach Thor about interacting with humans they had all looked to Darcy because neither Jane nor Erik even remotely knew that proper way to interact with a human who wasn't a scientist, a boss or a teacher.

However it still surprised her to see the tenderness and care with which she attended their fallen friend. That surprise turned to worry as his eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head and he lost consciousness.

"What's wrong?" she asked Darcy frantically, she had half a mind to check the bottle for poison, maybe she absent mindedly packed some other form of clear liquid from the lab into her backpack mistaking it for water. The thought made her freeze; her lab ,while not a chemistry lab, contained enough dangerous clear liquids that a panicked pause was more than warranted until...

"Relax Jane," assured Darcy. "He's just exhausted, he knows we are going to help him so he can finally let his body rest." she waved Jane over. "Come on, I need your hand with him, he's going to be almost as heavy as Thor was but this time we don't have Erik to help us lift him."

And that's when they saw his arm, or more accurately didn't see it. The shirt he had wrapped around his head to keep sand out of his face had fallen down on his left side leading them to think that it was covering up his left arm bit as Darcy pulled the clothing off of his torso they both let out a gasp of surprise and horror; his left arm was gone, it looked like it had been torn from the shoulder and what amazed and simultaneously shocked the two girls was that it was healing, the stump left at his shoulder seemed to be knitting the muscle tissue and sinews together before their very eyes.

"That level of healing is not normal," said Jane now even more reluctant to approach the Barnes.

Darcy knew that Jane's immediate conclusions would be that he was Asgardian, when the woman obsessed she did it like anything else she did; with determination and single mindedness.

"He's not from there Jane, I saw his dog tags, he's a soldier and what's more his name is James B. Barnes. And that didn't get the reaction that Darcy had been hoping for. "No? Nothing? James Barnes, James 'Bucky' Barnes? Captain America's best friend? The only Howling Commando who died in the Caps leadership?"

Jane just shook her head at the intern. "Darcy I have better things to do than to know about a Super Soldier and his best friend, I mean am I glad he helped Thor defeat those aliens last year? Of course. Am I going to fangirl and dig up every known information about him? No."

Darcy sighed as she unconsciously ran a hand over Barnes' unkempt, windblown hair. "I didn't fangirl over him Jane," she replied exasperated. "But you know when six people take down an alien army which consists of but is not limited to large armored whale/turtle robotic hybrid monstrosities destroying small buildings, I tend to want to know a little bit more about them." She looked from Jane to Barnes and back again and shrugged. "When I read up on Captain Rogers I saw that James Barnes was a very close friend of his and his death hit the Cap hard. Unfortunately it was not long after that his plane went down and he was preserved for seventy years. Think about it Jane, he lost his best friend, didn't get the chance to grieve for him and then woke up and realized that he had lost everyone else that mattered to him, he must have been through hell. If this _is_ Bucky Barnes? Then maybe it will be one less thing Captain America will have to grieve for."

"Darcy we don't even know if he's just a soldier whose father was a Captain America fan and named his son after Caps best friend."

Darcy shook her head again. "Look at his clothes, these are not clothes that any American military is issuing it's soldiers, a lot of improvements have been made, he isn't even wearing decent armor for his rank."

"Cos play?" Jane asked eliciting an eye roll from her friend. "And how do you even know about what soldiers wear nowadays?"

Darcy huffed. "I'm a military brat remember? Both my brother and father have served. It was in my resume, which you were supposed to look over before hiring me."

Jane shrugged. "You were the only applicant remember? I didn't need to read you resume all I needed to know was your drive and commitment and while I admit your attention span is limited," she snarked earning an indignant "Hey." from her. "I never regretted my decision."

There was a moment at which both girls couldn't decide what to say, and then...

"Hmm," came from Barnes jolting them out of their reverie.

Jane wronged her hands in anticipation. "Does he need medical attention?"

Darcy shook her head. "His shoulder has almost healed, but he is dehydrated and it'll take both of us to move him."

Jane nodded and jangled the keys, "I'll bring the van around." And left Darcy to slowly assist Barnes without having him wake up.

**XKXKXKXKXK**

"_Bucky! Bucky grab my hand!" He tried to reach but it was already too late; the handle he was clinging to gave way and he watched with horror filled eyes as the snow covered ground more than a 500ft below came up to meet him... _

Bucky woke up with a gasp his single arm flailing trying to control his non existent fall. His breathing was labored and he was covered in sweat. Thoughts ran through his head, important thoughts, things that had happened. Through the confusion one name popped out at him. _Steve_. He had watched as his best friend fell away from him as he fell towards the ground. The devastation was clear in his eyes and Bucky knew that this was going to hit Steve harder than anything ever had.

Bucky wasn't conceited but he knew exactly how many people Steve cared about that were still alive, he could count them all in one hand with fingers to spare and he was one of them and so was that SSR Agent Carter that he had the hots for.

He knew that he needed to contact Steve, some how though when he had miraculously survived that 500 foot drop he had ended up in the desert in the middle of nowhere with his left arm gone, _when_ he had lost his arm, he had no idea. Bucky did remember bouncing of two cliff edges before he lost consciousness it might have happened then.

After gaining his wits in the desert he set about trying to dress his wound with his rudimentary first aid skills and that's when he realized that the Red Skull and Zola had really did a number on him, he had been suspicious at times when lifting things became too easy for him, when he rarely got tired and whenever he got a cut or scrape it usually was gone within a few hours not leaving even a trace of scarring.

He hadn't mentioned it to Steve because while his new strength and healing ability spooked him, Steve had enough on his plate to be getting along with, he didn't need Bucky's problems on top of his own.

So he had hid his abilities, he controlled his strength in close combat situations so as to not tip any of the commandos of but when he got the chance to engage an enemy alone he took great satisfaction in punching someone with all his strength and watch the guy fly so similar to when Steve punched people.

So when he saw his torn and still ridiculously painful shoulder slowly starting to knit back together as the muscles and sinews all healed it just confirmed his suspicions that he had been enhanced by Zola and HYDRA.

Shrugging of the uneasy feeling of being used as an experiment he had turned around and walked in a random direction reluctantly thankful that he didn't have to waste energy fixing his arm.

His random direction had ultimately led Bucky here, in an unfamiliar room half sitting half lying on the couch.

Bucky finally gained the awareness to look around him and realized one thing, where ever he was now it definitely wasn't in the middle of nowhere.

The room he was in contained two pieces of furniture; the couch he was sitting in and a set of table and chairs across the room from him. The rest of the room though seemed to be covered in papers and posters and whiteboards all with jumped up theories and formulas that would never make sense to him.

Slowly as everything came to focus he saw that someone had seen fit to dress his shoulder stump, his eyes filled with unshed tears as it finally hit him, now that he was somewhere safe enough to actually break down, his arm was no longer _there_. It just seemed impossible to him. He had thought about a lot of things that could happen to him when he had signed up for the war but somehow losing an appendage hadn't ever seem to factor into it.

But Bucky stemmed the flow of unwanted tears immediately, there was no way he was completely breaking down in an unfamiliar and possibly hostile place even if they dressed his wounds.

He slid his legs down from the couch and made to stand up; he needed to contact Steve, let him know that he was alive and ask him to send someone to pick him up, Steve probably needed his help more than ever, yes he was Captain America and yes Bucky could be next to useless now with his lost limb but Steve didn't need the grief of his death hanging over him, knowing the punk he probably was blaming himself for Buckys death and that sort of thinking was just not something that Bucky was about to allow.

As he was about to stand though, one of the far doors opened an in walked a very attractive dame with long dark tresses, pouty red lips, brown eyes framed with non ugly looking glasses, a voluptuous figure and a relieved smile. She completed the alluring picture by holding a plate of food in one hand and some type of clothing in another.

"Oh you're awake," she said standing next to him and setting the plate down next to him on one of the many posters lying around. "I brought you food, sorry eggs and pop tarts are just about the only things we have to offer here at Café de Lewis, and I brought you a change of clothes, it belongs to one of our colleagues so I apologize in advance for the plaid. I'm Darcy by the way and me and my boss _slash_ friend found you in the desert half dying from dehydration."

She seemed to say this all in one breath but not super fast so Bucky got every word and she seemed to be oddly excited to talk to him, Bucky though was not an imbecile and while he was a soldier that didn't mean he had forgotten his manners.

Bucky got up and shook the preferred hand. "I'm Sergeant James Barnes of the Howling Commandos ma'am," he said as he let go. "I would like to thank you for helping me, I assure you that if you help me get back to command you will be well compensated for your troubles."

Normally the dashing Bucky Barnes was a little more suave with the lady's and he would have tried to turn on the charm, kiss the back of the dames hand and flirt like crazy but he knew that the effect would be ruined by his lost arm and there was also the fact that he mostly cared about getting back to Steve and not chatting up the dames although she _was_ one fine looking specimen. Steve would have been appalled by the thoughts running through his mind right then.

But he focused back as Darcy let out a sigh. "Yeah about that," she took his hand in hers and led him back to the couch. "sit down and eat, you look like you need it." And as he did as she asked Darcy walked to the table and pulled out a chair which she dragged back to the couch and sat down in front of him.

He watched her while devouring the food; the Pop Tarts?, did she say, tasted incredible and was reminiscent to some of the strawberry tarts that Mrs Rogers used to make for dessert, and he hadn't had eggs for breakfast in a long time the soldiers mostly depending on MREs and game that the guys caught for food. She sighed one more time before speaking.

"James Barnes," she said pulling out a little piece of rectangular plastic that she held up and seemed to read out of. "Joined the Army at nineteen, trained and was promoted to Sergeant in just two years time, was twenty four when America went to war, was captured by German Nazi forces and was rescued by Captain Steve Rogers," she read and then looked up at him adding from her own knowledge; "aka _Captain America_ and joined his team of Howling Commandos where he gained recognition as one of the most skilled snipers in the the American Military. During the raiding of a train holding secret Nazi developed weapons Sergeant Barnes was killed in action when a blast pushed him out of the train causing him to fall over 500ft down to his death. Barnes was awarded the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart posthumously for his services to his country and his acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. And it goes on to state your greatest missions blah blah, you get the idea. Is this the James Buchanan Barnes you're claiming to be?"

By now Bucky had finished his meal, he nodded his affirmation at Darcy's question he realized that it must have been much longer than he realized since he fell of that train if they had already awarded him medals posthumously but to be honest what intrigued him more was the device that Darcy was reading all this information out of.

"Yeah I'm that James Barnes," he replied. He indicated the device. "What is that thing you're reading from, I don't think I've ever seen that kind of technology before." He got up for a closer look but Darcy stood up and stepped back. Bucky stopped short suddenly aware that the mood had shifted in the room.

"Never mind my phone," she said whipping out another device which looked like a small gun, he watched as she pressed the trigger and sparks lit up between the two metal prongs located at the muzzle of the 'gun'. "Know what this is? Ever been electrocuted?" Bucky had very unpleasant memories of Zola and Schmidt using their favorite method of torture on him during his stay at HYDRA so he nodded and so did Darcy. "Uh huh 50,000 volts of pure unadulterated electricity and it's in the palm of my hand so you better start telling the truth about who you are buster or its going to get very interesting over here." And she sparked the electrocuter again.

Out instinct Bucky's eyes flicked to all the possible exits and anything he could use to defend himself before looking back at those beautiful brown eyes that meant business. He had a hard time not smiling as he raised his hand up, she was feisty and unpredictable; how may people patched up your wounds, let you sleep on their couch, feed you when you woke up and then threaten to shock you. He had a feeling that Darcy was going to make his life a whole lot more interesting that it already was.

"50,000 volts?" he asked conversationally his hands in the air. "I remember the Red Skull working his way _up_ to 50,000 volts when he was torturing me," he almost smirked as he saw Darcy falter at the word torture, she was innocent still; he had wondered what made a dame like her carry such a heavy duty equalizer in her pocket. "Are you telling me that all that punch can be delivered by that little bit of plastic?"

"You better believe it bozo," she assured and surprisingly he did believe her. "I've dropped people way more powerful than you with this and I'm not afraid of doing it again." There was a secret smile that she showed as she boasted that told him there was more to _that_ story than she was telling. But Bucky shook his head, it was time to get this situation under control, he had assessed the situation, analyzed the level of danger and it was now time to neutralize the threat. He remembered vaguely that Darcy was not alone when she came to rescue him and also Darcy had mentioned a boss _slash_ friend...

"Well," he said smirking evilly. "That's me taken care of but what's to stop my partner from ripping out your bosses throat while you're here?" He watched her eyes widen and she dropped her weapon hand glancing quickly at the door where her boss was probably standing waiting and that was when Bucky moved. In less than two seconds he had gotten behind her snatched the weapon in her hand and turned to face her his fingers on the trigger the electrocuter facing Darcy. Even missing a limb he was still extraordinarily fast, and though he hated to admit it; Zola _had_ given him an amazing gift.

Darcy had barely managed to make a squeak of surprise at his movements but she was still looking at the door and not at her weapon not trained on her.

"Jane?" she called out tremulously his morbid description obviously traumatizing her.

"She's fine," replied Bucky as 'Jane' stepped inside the room holding a crow bar? "I have no partner and I'm not going to hurt you." He watched as Jane walked slowly over to stand next to Darcy her weapon held loosely in her hand,  
>Bucky eyed it until she dropped it and as soon as she did he threw the electrocuter back at Darcy and stood back watching her reaction as she caught it; she had such an expressive face.<p>

He was rewarded when she looked back at him with a shocked face with her mouth gaping open, a glance at the girl beside her showed more of the same but less dramatic and he let out a little chuckle. When they still stared he moved to shrug and realized the movement wouldn't look like much with just one shoulder moving so he chose to toll his eyes at them.

"I never wanted to fight and I mean you both no harm," he tried to assure them. "I could have held on to that device-"

"Taser," said Darcy.

Bucky nodded his thanks. "Taser, but I gave it back to you in good faith that you believe my words." He looked at them earnestly. "Darcy," he turned to Jane. "Ma'am all I want is to get back to my command and continue my service, if you can provide any help in achieving that goal than I would welcome it but if you are reticent then please point me to the door and I will get out of your hair. I am self sufficient enough survive on own."

"Not without an arm you're not," replied Darcy eyeing his bandaged stump.

Bucky scowled down at his missing appendage and raised a challenging eyebrow at her. "I can manage just fine with one arm, I disarmed _you_ didn't I?" he asked sardonically and watched with satisfaction as she flushed. "You might want to learn some self defense, when you rely too much on your weapon, no matter how strong it is, it will become your crutch and you'll be useless without it."

He turned back to Jane. "Now ma'am the door please."

Jane shook her head. "We are sorry about not believing you but you have to look at things from our perspective," Jane spoke with soft but confident tones as someone who knew how to lead people although she didn't have much experience in it, her voice was almost as authoritative as Agent Carter's. "What you're asking us to help you with is not only difficult to do but impossible. Sergeant Barnes your command post? The SSR? The Commandos? They are all gone." She said that last part as a whisper and watched as Bucky's feet fell out from under him, luckily he was standing in front of the couch and encounters a soft landing.

"So then we lost?" he asked his face haggard all the thoughts of surprising the commandos, laughing at the looks on Steve and Agent Carter's face were replaced by thought about never seeing his friends, really his _family_, again. And Steve, never seeing his _best friend_ again, he was hard pressed to stem the tears again as he thought about him. But then...

"No James," said Jane softly. "We won."

And Bucky looked up hopefully but saw his sorrow reflected in her eyes.

"James the reason we don't believe you is because the war you say you fought in ended seventy years ago," Buckys eyes opened wide at that admission. "It's the year 2014 and if what you say is true than you somehow came from 1943 to 2014 in a few hours and that's just not possible."

Bucky looked from Darcy; who was now standing, hand taserless, and looking a little lost as to how to explain things to him, to Jane who seemed determined to not believe what he was saying and realized that this wasn't some ridiculously elaborate joke, that they actually believed he had traveled through time.

Bucky shook his head. "Prove it," he said firmly and watched as the fire in Darcy's eyes lit up again.

"Dude _you're_ the one who's going to need our help in navigating the future so _you_ need to prove that you are who you say you are before _we_ have to prove anything." She had walked her way back to the chair mid rant and sat herself down on it crossing her legs and raising one challenging eyebrow as she finished, daring him to contradict her.

Bucky thought for a moment and then nodded, if they were telling the truth and he _was_ in the future then he was going to need their help more than they would need his. "Okay ask me anything you want."

"Hmm," Darcy said as she pulled out her phone. "SHIELD recently let all their secrets go public to stop HYDRA and a lot of files a still floating around not having been rounded up by the government. At any rate it will be easier to hack then any of SHIELD's firewalls so... there... I got it. Okay James Barnes. Here we go. Okay what is your residential street address?"

"569 Leaman Place, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York City," Bucky promptly replied.

"How were you found when Captain Rogers rescued you from HYDRA?"

"I was bound to a table unconscious with tubes and needles stuck in my arms and legs, Steve had to half carry me out of there."

"What were the circumstances of you enlisting early and at such a young age into the military?" Darcy's voice now had gotten soft as he got the answers correct, she realized that the man who had had these things happen to was sitting in front of her.

"Steve," Bucky sighed but continued. "We had moved in together after his mom died, for two years I picked up any job that I could find; I bussed tables, I conducted buses, I swept and cleaned almost half of Brooklyn so that Steve could keep getting his medicine, he always tried to work too but no one wanted to hire a kid who could drop dead if he did something strenuous or breathed in something he was allergic too. He always felt guilty about me doing all the hard work an him reaping the benefits." Bucky grinned ruefully at his memories. "I told the punk that if reaping the benefits meant lying in bed half the week and coughing or wheezing or fighting asthma attacks the other half then he could reap all the benefits he wanted. When our landlady told us of her son being promoted to captain recently I got the idea that if I enlisted then I could keep sending money home to pay Steve's bills and still make a difference, you know _matter_."

"I don't know if I would have enlisted if Steve wasn't that sick," he said quietly. "In the end the extra money helped a lot and Steve was able to get better enough to paint and draw again and he sold some of his art for good prices but never used it, he opened an account at the bank under my name and put all that money that could have gone to his treatment in fixed deposit for me. I gave him a hell of a talking to when I found out but he wouldn't budge. More stubborn than a mule he was." Bucky wiped his eyes which had once again filled with tears.

"One last question," Darcy's own eyes were now suspiciously bright and Jane was openly crying just not realizing it. "What nickname did Captain Rogers use to refer to you even in battle."

He let out a snort at that question. "He called me the same name he always called me, ever since we were kids; he called me 'Bucky'.

**XKXKXKXKXK**

_A/N: Just an observation, I know that it might seem like Steve and Bucky are more than friends but they're not. This will be Het and no main pairing will be Slash. Steve and Bucky are closer then brothers and consider each other family._


	6. The Other Captain and the Spy

**XKXKXKXKXK**

**Destiny Intervenes**

**The Other Captain and the Spy**

He had expected the cold. When Steve had made up his mind that the only way to stop the Tesseracts power was to dump it and the plane down into the Arctic ocean, he had been prepared for the cold.

Suddenly realizing that there was no longer a plane supporting him underneath, suddenly feeling gravity kick in an pull him towards the ground, suddenly realizing that the fast approaching terrain underneath him was _not_ the Arctic, _that_ he was not prepared for. He was however thankful that even though he was falling when a second ago he was piloting a plane, somehow he was going to hit water and not the tough, hard and unforgiving earth.

It only occurred to him in the last second as he hit the surface of the water that the height at which he had fallen would mean that his impact with the water would not be very different from hitting concrete at the same speed.

It was solely because of his enhanced physiology that all the bones in his body did not shatter upon impact, as it was Steve was dazed and that was not a condition that was preferable if you're treading ice cold water that almost seemed to be as deep as the sea.

He faltered and tried to move his limbs but all he could manage was a pathetic sort of flail before he went under, the cold and his half unconscious state meant that he was dead weight and started to sink, the pressure in his lungs became excruciating and finally without any other option available, with no more strength in his arms and legs, Steve relaxed his throat and the water entered his lungs starting to drown him. He lost consciousness then.

**XKXKXKXKXK**

Steve let out a desperate sputter of a breath and failed his arms comically as he came to and looked up into the most greenest eyes he had ever seen. They belonged to a pale face with full red lips and framed with fiery red hair that was right now matted to her neck and shoulders indicating that he had her to thank for his rescue, he noticed that her lipstick was smeared a little so he surreptitiously swiped at his mouth and his eyes widened as he saw the red smear on his fingers. He let out a groan of disappointment; it was just his luck that the most beautiful girl he had ever seen had her lips on his and he was unconscious for the entire experience.

Luckily someone had gotten the woman's attention and she was looking at them not noticing his groan.

Steve while conscious now could still feel stabbing pains in his legs and arms and when he tried to move one of his legs the effort made him almost cry out and his leg just shuddered and refused to cooperate. The impact with which he had hit the water had taken its toll; while the serum prevented him from breaking anything let alone _dying on impact_, it looked like every muscle in his body had been strained and he wasn't moving by himself anytime soon.

He finally resolved to wait for 'Miss Beautiful' to finish her talk on the strange plastic rectangular device in her hand before asking for help.

"If he's in New York," she was saying. "Then why did he fall out of the sky and into the Potomac at Triskelion?"

Potomac? Steve wondered, that was a river that flowed through Virginia right? She was obviously taking about him since out of the both of them _he_ was the one who had fallen out of the sky and into a river but what in the hell was Triskelion?

The 'What!?' that came out of the plastic device could be heard even by Steve, so it was a_ communications device_ that she was talking to, sort of like the radios they had used in the war but way way smaller.

The smirk that he saw on her face told her that she was enjoying surprising the person on the other end of the line, even smirking she looked _captivating_ and Steve looked around him bereft in search for a pencil and paper to try and capture even a tenth of her beauty. He watched as a bead of water clinging to her hair fell down the perfect slope of her nose and down her chin and he bit his lip as he watched fascinated as the bead of water traveled across her perfect skin and further downwards until... he suddenly blushed and looked back up straight into the eyes of the woman who was obviously amused by his staring.

He breathed a sigh of relief, amused was better than offended. He didn't know what was wrong with him, he never behaved this way with dames, he was normally shy and reticent and allowed the bold dames to make a move first instead of putting himself out there and getting rejected. He couldn't remember the last time he forgot himself so much around a lady.

Her next words though made him pause. "You heard me," she said to her listener at the other end of the line. "If Rogers is in New York then why am I looking down at Captain America her in DC?"

He was in New York? Or maybe he was supposed to be? 'No I wasn't,' he thought to himself. He watched as her expressed slowly changed from amused to speculative and then decidedly suspicious.

"And you can confirm this?" she asked casting a sidelong glance at him. "Okay, thanks Hill, I'll call you back." She didn't take her eyes of him as she tossed the communication radio back to the man standing behind him and with one smooth motion her hand went down to her holster and she pulled out a gun, his eyes widened as she clicked the safety off with practiced ease and then trained the barrel straight between his eyes.

It was the most beautiful and at the same time terrifying sight that he had ever seen, beautiful because he was pretty sure he was already halfway in love with her and terrifying because he couldn't move and while he was durable, he was in no way bulletproof; a shot to the head would kill him just as same as anybody else.

"You have till the count of ten to tell me who you really are and why you look like Steve Rogers," she said completely serious. "once I reach zero your times up. Ten."

"Wait, what-," Steve sputtered. "I _am_ Steve Rogers"

"Nine."

"Now hold on ma'am," he tried again. "I'm telling the truth, I'm Steve Rogers, I'm Captain America, you've got to believe me."

"Eight," was all she said.

"Really?" he asked incredulously. "Ma'am I can't move," he watched as her hand twitched when he said ma'am,he vaguely remembered too late her telling the guy behind her that she didn't like being called that. "I've probably strained all my muscles because of the impact of landing in the water. I _need_ you to believe me, I really _am_ Steve Rogers."

"Seven."

This was getting ridiculous, Steve thought as he watched his beautiful murderer to be, well if he _had_ to die, he thought morbidly. At least it was at the hands of an angel.

"Six."

"Agent Romanoff?" asked the man beside her urgently until Romanoff, was it, raised a hand for him to be silent and said...

"Five."

Steve just rolled his eyes in frustration, there was obviously no reasoning with her but he wished he could have gone down in a more heroic way than lying on a bridge, unable to move while being shot because he looked like _Steve Rogers; _it was absurd

"Four."

He memorized the way her green eyes shone in the mid morning sunlight determined that those orbs be the last thing he sees.

"Three."

He closed his eyes, knowing that the last words he will hear will be from her beautiful lips and wished he could have felt those lips on his own at least once.

"Two."

And Steve opened his eyes, catching her gaze again. No. He was not going down like this. If anything when and if he did go down he was determined to have the knowledge of how her lips felt beneath his and his last thoughts be of _that_ kiss instead of the absence of one.

"On-"

"No." Steve let out in a stern voice looking straight into her eyes. "Now I know that there is some sort of misunderstanding going on here but _I am_ Steve Rogers," he stated emphatically. "and I cannot claim to be anyone else because I am _not_ anyone else." He decided that only way to prove his honesty was to give her a brief rundown of his life. "I was born a sickly child and struggled all through adulthood until I was given a chance by Dr Erskine who saw something in me and made me be a part of Project Rebirth; the super soldier project.

"It was successful and I came out of that chamber looking like this. Ever since, I have tried to use the gift Dr Erskine gave me to help my country and it's people. I have fought, sweat and bled for my country. I didn't just defeat Red Skull and try to crash land a plane into the Arctic sacrificing myself just to be put down like some mangy dog in the middle of the street."

"You say you know that I am not Steve Rogers. Do you know the real Steve Rogers? Do you know his history? Ask me anything about him, let me prove it to you Miss Romanoff that I am who I say I am."

When he was done she just stared impassively at him and he was sure that she was going to say "One." and shoot him anyway but somehow, miraculously, it worked; his angel of death lowered her weapon, simultaneously he felt his serum kick in, slowly but surely restoring functionality back into his limbs but he felt sure he was going to be sore as hell.

"Pretty little speech," Romanoff said and god she even looked sexy being _sarcastic_. "But I've heard Cap give a ton of those, thing is I've watched him back it up also."

She leaned back and studied him. He felt sure that he could now stand up if he wanted to but stayed down knowing that getting up would be a _bad idea_.

She folded her arms. "So let's see you back it up. I'll ask one question that only Cap would know, you get it wrong I put a bullet through your head, got it?"

Steve could only nod his head in agreement. God she was beautiful. God what was _wrong_ with him. The dame was talking about putting a bullet through his head and he was crushing on her. He supposed it was no surprise he also had had a crush on the last girl who had aimed her gun at him and she had actually fired off some rounds at him.

Miss Romanoff stared at him for a moment and then spoke. "Give me the exact details pertaining to the death of your fellow Howling Commando James Barnes.

Steve went cold. This was something he was not expecting and judging by the look in Romanoff's eyes she knew exactly how deep she had hit him without even raising her hand.

"How-?"

"Answer the damn question." she interrupted once again training her gun at him.

He almost snarled at her, everyone back at base knew that Bucky was off limits even after the memorial they knew not to bring him up around Steve. But as he looked down the barrel of the gun pointing at him he realized that she had chosen the perfect question; only he and Bucky knew exactly what happened on that train and Steve had only told one SSR Agent; Peggy Carter and clearly Romanoff had somehow gotten her hands on that debrief.

"Okay, okay," he tried to placate and took a deep breath to fortify himself. "we received Intel about a HYDRA weapons shipment being carried out in the mountains. Because it was HYDRA the SSR shoed us in to handle it. We made a bad call and... the Intel was not complete. James - uh - Bucky and me we decided to rappel down to the train and try and take out their cache."

"What we didn't know; was that Dr Arnim Zola an associate of Red Skulls was on board and he was watching our every move and directing his HYDRA soldiers accordingly. When we opened the first box of weapons we saw that all the weapons on the train were made from the energy of the Cube and that's when all hell broke loose."

"The soldiers were suited up in Cube powered armor and were handling Cube powered weapons. During the fight I was knocked aside and Bucky grabbed my shield used it to block bullets but a blast from the HYDRA soldiers weapon blew a hole on the side of the train knocked Bucky sideways. I quickly grabbed my shield which had fallen near me and took care of that last soldier and approached the hole in the side of the train."

"When I looked out I saw Bucky clinging into one of the walls, holding on the his life, I quickly got outside and reached out to Bucky telling him to grab my hand, but just as he was reaching out the handle he was clinging to ripped of the wall and sent him down into the snowy canyons at least 500 feet down. We never even found his body."

**XKXKXKXKXK**

Natasha Romanoff still had her gun trained on him but that was mostly because she was shocked at the absolute grief in the eyes of the supposed Captain Rogers; the Rogers she knew barely let any emotion show and was always business, even when he had found out who the Winter Soldier really was he had been mostly stoic. But with this man she could see that his eyes had filled with tears he was barely keeping at bay as he described the death of his closest childhood friend.

Natasha had of course read the reports, shield had an extensive record cataloging all of Steve's missions and all the casualties but she had never heard the events be described in that way. Slowly she lowered her gun turned the safety on and holstered it. Contrary to popular belief the Black Widow was not an emotionless bitch, and she recognized any time she was being fed bullshit; this was not one of those times. Somehow some way the man lying prone and defenseless in front of her _was_ Steve Rogers.

When Hill had said that Cap was most definitely in New York and that she had his vitals on display and nothing indicated loss of consciousness or water in the lungs or any form of distress whatsoever; all his vitals were normal. This made her amusement at Cap staring at her cleavage morph into suspicion and so she had pulled her gun on him.

She had been serious about the countdown; if he didn't give her a compelling reason than there was going to be a very dead Captain America clone on the bridge at Triskelion. As it was he had managed to convince her enough to explain himself and so she had given him a chance asking him to tell her about one of his missions more specifically James Barnes' death. This information she knew was only known by her and possibly Director Fury and had not been dumped on the Internet because the files were only hard copies and was not recorded digitally.

And so she had listened as he detailed one of the last missions that the Howling Commandos did and at the end of it she knew one thing; something strange was going on. Hill had guaranteed that Cap was no where near DC but Natasha was pretty sure that the man lying in front of her _was_ Captain America, she took in his suit and recognized it as the suit that Cap had stolen from the exhibit to fight HYDRA right here at Triskelion only a couple of weeks ago. She got a strange idea.

"What is the last thing you remember?" she asked her no nonsense voice cracking like a whip.

"I had defeated the Red Skull, and I knew that I had to stop the plane from reaching it's destination so I had just taken the the pilots seat to take it off course. The next thing I knew, I was falling out of the sky."

Something clicked and Natasha realized looking at his suit that this was not _her_ Captain America, not that she had or wanted any claim over Cap, no this was the man who had been contemplating crashing the HYDRA plane, along with himself, into the Arctic to save the world only ten minutes ago. This was not a man frozen in accidental cryogenic sleep who had woke up in a different century, this was a guy who had been transported directly from 1943 to 2014 without any possible explanation as to why or how.

Eventually though Natasha knew that they could not stay out in the open like this, the press going to be here soon the last thing they needed was a story about two Captain America's and the Black Widow threatening to kill one of them.

"Can you walk?" she asked and he nodded. As he struggled to stand Natasha held out her hand and he grabbed it pulling himself up to his feet. He swayed dangerously and Natasha clasped his upper arm with an iron grip to support him as a they walked slowly into the lobby of the Triskelion.

Before they entered the door though Steve looked at his left hand and then around the base and into the river. "Did anyone see my shield?" he asked almost panicky.

The Agent who had been ghosting them spoke up. "I uh think I saw something fall on the roof, maybe..." he trailed off.

"Get it," she commanded and the Agent ran off while Natasha led them to one the sofas in the lobby which had not been destroyed. When he sat down she scrutinized him. "How's your healing."

"It's fine," he replied. "I'll probably be good to go in about half an hour."

Natasha nodded and noticed that he seemed to have trouble looking into her eyes, then as she turned around she watched him out of the corner of her eyes check her out. Natasha smirked, _Captain America_ was crushing on her, it was amusing because the Captain America that she knew while obviously good looking was extremely stoic and business like, he rarely ever let his hair down and was always focused on his work. She understood why and it hadn't bothered her as she had not been looking for more from him but now looking at the startling contrast between this new Cap and her Cap her Cap's standoffishness seemed to glare out at her. She wondered what happened differently to cause the glaring dissonance.

"You said there was another Steve Rogers."

Natasha cursed under her breath, she was hoping to not have to explain this to him, mostly because she didn't even know how the hell this came to be but she still turned to look at Steve.

"I did," she confirmed, he was looking into her eyes now and while his cheeks were tainted red he maintained eye contact, Natasha almost smiled; she could get used to this attention.

"What did you mean by that?" he asked determinedly.

She glanced at his legs. "You okay to walk now?"

Steve nodded, and stood up. It looked like her was still in pain but she knew not to question it, soldiers like them didn't like to feel useless, she understood that better than anybody.

She led him to one of the still functioning briefing rooms at ground floor and pulled up a holoscreen. She pulled up some basic info about SHIELD. "The building you're inside right now is a former SHIELD headquarters. SHIELD was founded by Margaret Carter and other members of the SSR and funded by Howard Stark. It was created in light to your disappearance into the Arctic along with the Tesseract."

She noticed him shift slightly at the mention of Carter and gave him a rueful look. "Records state that you requested to speak to Carter before you crashed the plane, do you remember doing that?"

Steve shook his head. "Peggy was angry at me. She had seen one of the Agents kiss me, without my involvement on my part, and had gotten pissed, she actually fired about four rounds at me. I guess we did kiss in the heat of battle but I didn't have time and didn't think to request to speak to her."

Natasha nodded her okay at that. "So SHIELD never actually gave up searching for you," Steve frowned at the picture of the excavated HYDRA plane and the picture of a vaguely humanoid shape, dressed in red, white and blue behind a block of ice. "Two years ago, we found you. You were an ice cube." Steve almost smiled at her description and she nodded, she knew that Fury's idea of isolating the newly thawed out Captain America was not a good idea and it showed, the Cap she knew was so emotionally closed off that she didn't even blame Stark at having a go at him, the Steve standing in front of her seemed to be less jaded and more easy going, although she knew that when it came to a fight this Steve would probably be just as formidable and instrumental as the other Captain.

"When we thawed you out," she continued. "We saw that your vitals were still kicking, they were weak but you were still alive." Steve's eyes widened at that. "Erskine's formula, the Super Soldier Serum, helped keep you preserved and in a cold induced hibernation for seventy years and two years ago you were woken up again."

She ran the footage of Cap waking up in a forties style room, footage of him standing on the helicarrier with her and Banner, the Stuttgart footage of him fighting Loki, him and Ironman repairing the helicarrier turbines, and all the footage captured of him directing and fighting with the Avengers at the Battle of New York.

Steve watched in amazement as a green hulking creature the size of a Mac truck smirked at his command and jumped hundreds of feet in the air to smash, we're those aliens?, into the buildings. "What...?"

Natasha folded her arms and smirked at him as the footage showed her and Cap fighting in tandem dropping Chitauri left and right. "You can understand how I had a hard time believing you weren't an imposter."

Steve nodded absently his eyes still on the holoscreen. "But that's ... me," he pointed at the Cap on screen as he worked with Ironman redirecting his lazer with the shield. "I would recognize myself anywhere except it's not me because I don't remember going to New York and fighting Aliens seventy years in the future."

Natasha put a hand on his on his folded bicep. "Steve, this _is_ seventy years into the future, and I don't think he," she nodded at the Cap on the screen. "is actually you, he was _frozen_ in ice for seventy years and lived in isolation for almost another year, he's had to relive crashing into that ocean and for all intents and purposes dying and then waking up into the future with all your friends, everyone you ever knew dead or about to die, he had to deal with it all alone because our Director made what I think was a bad call."

She watched as the light in his light left him as he turned over her words in his head. "They really are gone aren't they?" he asked finally. "If what you say is true then they must be gone. The commandos? Peggy? Howard? All gone?"

Natasha squeezed his arm in consolation, she was not a tactile person and le the situation might call for a hug, she didn't think he'd appreciate being hugged by a complete stranger, no matter how much he appreciated her body.

She was quiet as he got a hold of himself and then looked back at the screen. "Should I meet him?" he asked hesitantly.

Natasha frowned, should he? Right now Cap was dealing with finding out that his best friend who had died seventy years ago was still alive and turned into a HYDRA weapon, the most devastating of HYDRA weapons at that. Now might not be the best time for him to discover that another version of him somehow time traveled to the very same time in which _he_ had woken up in. But Natasha knew what it was like to have no control over her action to be forced to not do something when she knew she should do it so she decided...

"If you want to meet him then I'll take you," she promised hoping that she wouldn't regret her rash decision.

Steve looked almost horrified at the idea and shook his head. "No I don't think that that's a good idea, not right away at least," he said emphatically. "I don't know how he'll react but if I know myself at all I'm willing to bet it won't be positive whatever it is."

Natasha nodded. "And let's face it," she added. "It's not just his reaction we have to worry about." After all she had absolutely no idea how the Steve with her was going to react when meeting his doppelganger and she was willing to put that particular meeting on hold for as long as possible.

They watched the video feed silently as the Cap on the screen took out Chitauri left and right. "What are those things you are fighting?" he asked curious.

Natasha smiled as she watched Cap give her a boost helping her grab onto one of the Chitauri gliders before answering his question. "The Chitauri, we don't know much about them, even after examining all the remains they left behind all we've been able to confirm was that they were some cybernetic-biological hybrid that reproduces by the droves in order to conquer any and all territory they encounter." She paused as the image showed Loki grabbing one of Hawkeye's arrows. "that's Loki; he's the brother of Thor the guy with the red cape and hammer? Loki brought the Chitauri to earth looking to rule us, he said they were provided to him by some unknown source who promised him earth in return for the Tesseract which was in possession of SHIELD at the time."

Steve looked at Loki's image frowning. "Thor? Loki?" he asked perturbed. "Sounds like Norse God's from the Edda."

"Well yes," replied Natasha. "That's exactly what they claim to be. Thor is over a thousand years old and Loki and him grew up together."

Steve looked at her with an incredulous expression well past disbelief but before he could question her further there was a loud rumbling sound heard from over head, it sounded very similar to the Jets of a large airplane.

They both looked at each other and silently shelved their conversation Natasha leading them out, they ran into a frantic Agent Whatever His Name Was.

"Agent Romanoff a 'Bus' just landed on the roof."

"We have a Globemaster mobile?" Natasha asked her eyes wide.

"I found Captain Rogers shield and was attempting to retrieve it when it flew over head and headed for the landing pad, I came down as fast as I could."

"That's not what I asked Agent," said Natasha testily as they ascended the stairs. "Is there any record of an active Globemaster in SHIELD?"

The Agent shook his head. "No ma'a-, uh, Agent Romanoff not as far as I know."

Natasha nodded and readied her gun, the man was a typical SHIELD Agent but his clearance level was high enough that he would know if a Bus was being used, this meant only one thing...

**XKXKXKXKXK**

Steve was hot on Agent Romanoff's heels as they arrived on the top floor the only one put of breath being the still unnamed Agent. Apparently buses flew in 2014 and one had landed on the roof. Steve chose to ponder on _that_ notion later.

They both took positions on either side of the door leading to the roof. Romanoff looked at him for a second and held out a hand. "We haven't been properly introduced," she said as he curiously took her small but definitely strong and capable hands in his own. "Natasha Romanoff," she said. "More widely known as Black Widow."

Steve wondered as that moniker for a second and then nodded. "Steve Rogers at your service, Natasha."

Natasha looked at him a second longer. "You're familiar with HYDRA Captain?" she asked rhetorically. But Steve nodded anyways. "Good, because there is a good chance that there are HYDRA forces on the other side of that door and I will need your help making sure that they _stay_ on the other side of that door. Can I count on you to help me Cap?"

Steve blinked once and then nodded again. "Good, just don't get yourself killed." But as she moved to open the door Steve grabbed her upper arm lightly and on impulse kissed her straight on the lips. It was perhaps the suddenness or the inappropriateness that probably prevented him from getting his ass kicked but when he pulled back all he got was a look of confused curiosity.

"When you counted down to two, I told myself that I wanted to kiss those lips at least once before I die so..." he shrugged unrepentant because even without her kissing back those were the sweetest lips he had ever kissed, including Peggy's.

As he let go to allow her to open the door Natasha looked at him sternly. "You're still not allowed to die out there Rogers," she said to him. "because after _that_ the only person allowed to kill you is me."

Steve nodded once more. "Yes ma'am." And both, ignoring the wide eyed Agent witnessing the weird scene, opened the door and ran out onto the roof to confront the new arrivals.

**XKXKXKXKXK**

_A/N: Yeah, the kiss might be out of left field but my idea is that the stoic and by the book Cap we all know and love is a by product of being stuck in ice for seventy years and Fury keeping him isolated for almost another year, also somethings didn't happen to this Steve that happened to the other, more on that will be explained later. Please do review even it it is just to say good or bad, your feedback helps me improve my writing and motivates me to get more chapters out faster. So til the next chapter, bye._


	7. The Captains Surprise

**Destiny Intervenes**

Chapter 7: The Captains Surpise

_Previously;_

_Peggy watched in horror as the flat device Pepper was talking was offered to her to speak into. And as Peggy looked down at the piece of plastic a familiar voice floated up to her and pierced her heart almost causing it to stop. "Hello? Hello? Who's there?" Called the unmistakable voice of Steve Rogers._

**XKXKXKXKXK**

Steve Rogers, aka Captain America usually came off as pretty stoic, he was considered boring, uninteresting and sort of a boy scout by people who didn't really make the effort to get to know him. They usually didn't get much of an opportunity, to be fair, Steve isolated himself like nobody else.

It wasn't as if he didn't have any reason for his standoffishness but it still made for a lonely existence when most people couldn't see past the stars and stripes at the person that he was. When he had first met Tony Stark, Steve had assumed that he would be exactly like his father, given that he looked exactly like him. Steve had been starved of any human connection for nearly a year, being told by Fury that it was for his own good.

But all it had done was make him desperate for some sort of human connection with anybody. Besides Bucky Howard had been one of his closest friends, so when he saw Starks photo on the folder Fury had given him, for a brief torturous and glorious moment he deluded himself into thinking that his friend had survived until he read the name and the lists of accomplishments credited to that name.

The SHIELD file wasn't flattering, for every note of heroism and philanthropy accredited to Tony and Ironman's name there was a notation about just how reckless, arrogant egotistical and maniacal the man was, where ever it was mentioned that he was a genius of mind blowing proportions there was also mention of how much of a loner and a non team player he was. It had served to make his stomach turn when he read that his friends kid had turned out to be so different from his dad.

Howard had been a playboy yes, but the man had been a responsible and brilliant physicist and had always been ready to work with others to help his country and his friends and while he enjoyed a good glass of whiskey every now and then he was never an alcoholic like his son turned out to be. Steve had wondered briefly how disappointed Howard would have been if he had seen how his son had turned out.

Needless to say Cap wasn't too thrilled when Ironman had joined them in the hunt for the Cube, they had clashed immediately and proceeded to do so over and over again until Phil Coulson's death shook them enough to try and work together to stop the invasion.

During the fight Steve had gained a new respect towards Stark, he had always reserved judgement on people but with Stark he had slipped and taken what SHIELD had to say about him for granted, assuming incorrectly that an intelligence agency like them would get their facts straight.

Turned out, that they hadn't updated their files on him about what circumstances led him to actually develop his first Ironman suit given that Tony refused to be debriefed on the subject, he had gotten this particular information on Stark through Natasha while the newly recalibrated Barton flew them towards New York and the Chitauri invasion.

Watching from a distance as Starks Ironman took out aliens coming down from the portal with crude efficiency gained him a lot more respect in Caps eyes than he had thought possible. The man had had his chest opened up and a car battery powered electromagnet installed in order to help him survive long enough to build a missile for a group of terrorists who had already been using most of his weapons to wage war against America itself.

Caps view of Ironman drastically changed all throughout the battle as he proved that he was more of a team player than SHIELD could ever had predicted working seamlessly with the Avengers and strategizing almost as well as Cap himself, but what cemented Caps belief that Tony was just as much of a Hero as the rest of them was the complete lack of his own wellbeing as he had redirected that nuke heading to flatten them all and taken it into an unknown dimension, galaxy or even universe without an ounce of guarantee of returning back to earth, heck Cap himself had thought that it was a one way trip and had told him so and all he got back was Tony telling JARVIS to save some power for the _trip back_.

Even then, after Tony had been saved by Hulk and woken up, and Cap had figured that he had learned anything and everything there was to learn about Tony Stark and now looked at him in a more favorable light he still was swept off his feet when, after having evicted Loki from his penthouse, post Shwarma, and when all the Avengers had taken off their metal suits, shed off their cowls, put down their bows, gotten out of their cat suits, put down their hammers and calmed down from their rage, a whirlwind of delicate arms and legs clad in a figure hugging white business suit had entered through the elevator and started to rave and scream at the caught off guard Tony Stark who after looking at the woman in surprise for a few seconds had taken the admonishing with grace and surprising, still, contrite demeanor.

"Anthony Edward Stark!" rang the sharp voice through the spacious penthouse. Thor startled dropped the toaster he was examining and tried to look innocent, Barton's fingers had clenched minutely in reflex not one to be fond of surprises but used to suppressing his reaction to it, Bruce almost asleep due to exhaustion barely even registered the sound, Cap himself had stood up reflexively; his army training kicking in and well reminding him of the various times Agent Carter had burst into their mass rooms or quarters yelling out of the full name of some foolhardy officer who had gotten on her bad side, while Natasha seemed to lean back in her seat and presented an air of someone who was going to be thoroughly enjoying the next few minutes, all of this she managed without a single change of her facial expressions.

But Tony's reaction was by far the most entertaining and interesting; he let out an in-eloquent squeal and fell off of the arm of the sofa where he was sitting next to Dr Banner talking science not realizing or maybe not caring that the man was dozing off.

Tony had scrambled back up to his feet using the arm of the sofa for support and had taken cover behind it for a moment making sure that who he had heard was actually standing in the room and then he got to his feet letting out a deceptively joyful, "Pep, hi. When did you get back?" and then she was on him letting out load after load of anger onto the surprising unruffled if slightly guilty looking Tony Stark and as quick as her anger had appeared it had faded.

With a shuddering breath she had held up an almost replica of the device Stark usually carried around with him and showed his picture with the words '1 Missed Call, Tony' written underneath. "Y-you called me." She said stuttering, "And I didn't pick up and then you... you..." she stumbled over her words and then seemed to regain balance, "Y-you don't... don't get to do this to me Tony," she said as she poked him in the chest, Steve thought that she might have wanted to poke in the center of his chest but she had to avoid the chest piece that kept him alive. "You don't get to leave me here alone while you go sacrificing yourself to save the world."

"Pepper, the nuke," Tony said quietly. "It was the only way..."

The lady's, Pepper's eyes flashed. "Then you should have let it hit New York and gotten away, not... not..." And finally the tears she had been holding back broke through and fell down her beautiful freckled cheeks as she let out an agonized sob.

Steve watched in awe as the man he had labeled as egotistical, self-centered, arrogant and frankly dangerous gently tilted Pepper's head up with a finger under her chin to look into her eyes and said. "You know you don't rally mean that." Pepper looked defiant for a moment but then her shoulders slumped and she nodded dejectedly.

Tony gathered the now silently weeping woman in his arms and pulled her close and Steve looked on feeling like a voyeur as he witnessed one of the most intimate embraces he had ever seen.

Tony was amazingly gentle with her treating her as something precious that he could not bear to lose. He whispered soft reassurances into her ear and watched as Pepper slowly calmed down enough to notice everyone else in the room.

Introductions from the Avengers and sniffling apologies from Pepper, which were waved off, commenced. Pepper Potts was a statuesque strawberry redhead with legs that went on for miles and probably the most beautiful woman Steve had ever seen, and this wasn't only because of her looks which were more than attractive but the way she carried herself and the way she treated everybody, it was clear that this was her home but she didn't even blink an eye at the presence of five strangers lounging in her living room.

She greeted Natasha though with a fond smile and actually hugged her for a second, "I never got to thank you, Natalie," Steven enhanced hearing allowing him to hear her whispered words to which almost smiled and then genuinely returned the hug whispering back, "It was nothing, Pepper," and pulled back.

She politely shook everyone else's hand and looked wistfully at the sleeping Dr Banner wishing out loud that she could thank him for saving her boyfriends life.

Tony assured her that she would have plenty of time to talk to Bruce later and led her over to a chair, sitting her down and fussing to her about jet lags and long flights and the obvious long walk she had endured because the traffic was blocked for about a ten block perimeter around Stark Towers.

All of this had served to make Steve completely do a one-eighty in regards to what he had thought of Tony Stark. He was sure the man could be a pain whenever he wanted, he now knew though, that Tony was someone he could count on as a team member and maybe someday an even closer friend than Howard had been.

All in all Steve had smiled instead of scowled as Tony's name flashed on the screen of his phone as he got up to answer it. He was right now in his Brooklyn apartment catching some shut eye before taking up his search to find Bucky again.

He picked up the phone and promptly dropped it, cursing under his breath as it slid underneath his bed. Steve got on his knees and looked under the bed at the still ringing phone just out of his reach, Steve stretched out his hand his fingers scrambling against the rug as he struggled to get a hold of the thing, the ring tone then went silent and he stood up, he wished he could lift the bed off the floor and pick up the fallen device but his bed was bolted to the floor made of wrought iron; he tended to thrash around a lot in his sleep when in the throes of a nightmare and woke up with his bed on the other side of the room or worse completely decimated, an iron bed bolted down reduced the damage he caused and kept the landlord off his back.

Eventually long after the phone had stopped ringing Steve managed to retrieve the device by using a broom handle to pull it towards him and then he just stared at it, answering a call on the blasted thing was simple enough but he had absolutely no idea how to figure out who had been calling a minute ago and call them back. He fiddled with the thing for a while before giving it up as a bad deal, he figured if the caller had really wanted to talk to him they would call again.

Steve shrugged and went into the kitchen to make himself some light breakfast, he would meet Sam in the lobby in two hours time and they would together chase down the leads they had uncovered citing Winter Soldier sightings in New York. Of course there would be a lot of false leads as Steve had found out his first day out investigating; conspiracy theorists had been spotting the Winter Soldier for years now, ever since stories of his first missions floated over to the US and they published huge stories about him destroying an entire building which had actually been scheduled for demolition, holding him responsible for deaths that had come about by completely natural causes, one woman even claimed to be married to the Winter Soldier; Sam gave her the card of a self help group he knew in New York.

Every now and then though, they came across a story about the exploits of a man with a metal arm with a five point star on his shoulder a mask blocking view of his mouth and nose, his eyes a dead grey; emotionless and cold as he appeared killed someone and disappeared. Stories told of him being methodical, calculating, precise, cold and extremely accurate, he worked alone and used a variety of weapons in his arsenal including but not restricted to his own left arm which was both a prosthetic and a dangerous weapon. The story went that if you ever became the target of the Winter Soldier you would never know he was after you, you'd be dead before you figured that out.

But recent stories told different accounts; a woman ,clearly sane this time, claimed that someone with long shoulder length hair tied at the back with grey eyes and a closed of expression with a metal prosthetic hand had saved her from getting mugged or worse by a gang of thugs in an alleyway. She had claimed that just as one of the thugs had grabbed her arm while the rest were gloating about how that were going to enjoy her a dark figure dropped down from one of the fire escapes of the second story and proceeded to destroy the men, non of the thugs survived the encounter.

Even as she had turned to thank her savior the woman had discovered that the man was gone. He was more or less a ghost story but after Project Insight it seemed the stories told of a vigilante ghost instead of an cold ruthless assassin.

These stories were the ones that gave Steve hope, when they arrived at the scenes of these events they found nothing, not one shred of evidence suggesting the Winter Soldiers present and that only made him more certain, he was meticulous in covering his tracks and from what Steve had read about him this was normally his MO.

It was these incidences that Steve asked around about and he usually got a good accounting of it instead of garbled rubbish from conspiracy nuts.

Apparently New York had gained a new Vigilante.

**XKXKXKXKXK**

Steve's phone didn't ring again but five minutes after he finished his hearty breakfast his SHIELD communicator pinged into life. The ping was not supposed to register on normal human ears unless said comm unit was inside the humans ear but thanks to the serum Steve registered the soft ping from the bottom of his dresser draw while he had his kitchen tap on, doing the dishes.

Steve toweled off his hands and walked over to his bedroom to pull out the unit, he clipped on the receiver to his belt and pushed to comm into his ear pressing the button and calling out cautiously, "Rogers," after all SHIELD was supposed to be shut down whoever was contacting him could be an enemy. He breathed a sigh of relief though when the clipped tones of Former Deputy Director of SHIELD, Agent Hill, answered back.

"Agent Hill," said Steve walking to his suit case and pulling out his outfit. "Good to hear your voice, sir." He had learned the hard way not to call her ma'am but she was his superior so he had to offer some mode of acknowledgment to her rank.

"Not an Agent anymore Cap," she replied. "You know that."

Steve smiled at her tone, for some reason he could not fathom Agent Hill had always held a more flirtatious tone when communicating with him than with any other Agent, it always threw him for a loop when Agents mentioned the ice queen when referring to Hill when all he ever encountered was warm regard from her.

"Well Maria from what I hear you are one of the parties involved in the main workings to get SHIELD back up and running again."

"And from what I hear Steve it says that you won't be a part of that SHIELD like last time."

Steve sighed at those words. "Last time Maria, I seemed to have been more a part of HYDRA than of SHIELD and until I can be sure where the new SHIELD's loyalties lie I cannot give them mine."

He could almost feel Hill wince at the reminder of the past months events. "You're right to be cautious Captain," she finally replied. "But I think once you meet the new Director you'll be able to know where SHIELD's loyalties lie."

Steve frowned. "I would have assumed since you are making such an effort to get SHIELD up and running again that you would be Director."

"I refused Fury's offer," she replied. "And recommended a better person for the job, I think once you meet him Cap, you'll see why."

Before Steve could ask more though she changed the subject. "But even though I wouldn't mind, I didn't call on you just to chat Cap. Pepper wants to speak to you."

"Miss Potts?" asked Steve plaintively.

"I'll patch you through, it seems to be urgent I've never heard her so flustered and frankly pissed off before, she normally more laid back and controlled."

And Steve heard a couple of clicks register before his communicator flared up again. "Steve?"

"Uh, yes ma'am?" Pepper Potts was one person who made him revert to his Brooklyn manners, the woman was just so classy, he once again wondered exactly how she had ended up with Stark.

"Thank God," she answered. "We've been trying to reach you for ages."

"That was you Miss Potts?" he asked looking at his phone. "Or Tony I guess. Well ma'am I couldn't reach the phone in time and since Tony didn't teach me how to use the thing properly..." he trailed off not wanting to raise the woman's ire by insulting Tony, he was told she was fiercely protective of him.

"Oh he didn't, did he?" she asked her tone edgy and he got the feeling that Tony was in the room with her. "Well I'll be having a talk with him later," she paused. "And what did I say about calling me ma'am?"

"To not to ma'a... uh, Pepper," he answered chastened.

"Exactly," she said her tone self satisfied.

Then she got on to her reason for calling. "Steve I know you must be busy but there is someone here who wants to speak to you."

Steve frowned, who did he know from Starks that would want to speak to him. "Who is it?" he asked. "Do I know them?"

"Oh I think you'll remember her very fondly," said Pepper coyly.

Her. It was a woman? At Stark Tower? Steve could think of no one who would want to contact him from there, much less a woman, but he called out none the less when he heard Pepper pass on the phone.

"Hello?" he asked getting no answer.

"Hello?" he asked again. Who's there?"

A hesitant voice answered and Steve received the shock of his life.

"H-Hello?" she asked hesitantly. "Steve? Hi... uh... it's... uh... it's me."

Steve blinked a couple of times, if he had been holding a phone he would have dropped it again by now because he recognized that voice. It was a voice that he hadn't even heard in the century he had woken up in.

It was in fact the voice he had last heard as he had crashed into the frozen ocean with the HYDRA plane. It had had the same distortions as the electronic communication he was right now hearing through the comms. He had last heard this voice as he promised her that he would meet her at the club in Brooklyn for that promised dance knowing full well that he would never get to see her again. He had had that voice, her voice, haunt him every night since waking up in 2012

But here he was on the other end of the line from the same voice which sounded like it hadn't aged a day, when he knew better. "Peggy," he asked disbelievingly and he heard the voice of Peggy Carter let out a startled gasp.

**XKXKXKXKXK**


	8. Revelations

**Destiny Intervenes**

Chapter Eight: Revelations

_Previously:_

_"One last question," Darcy's own eyes were now suspiciously bright and Jane was openly crying just not realizing it. "What nickname did Captain Rogers use to refer to you even as your call sign?"_

_He let out a snort at that question. "He called me the same name he always called me, ever since we were kids; he called me 'Bucky'."_

* * *

><p>Darcy let out a slow breath and stood up and started pacing. "Okay," she said. "okay, okay, okay." she repeated her voice getting higher on each repetition, she stopped and turned back to Bucky. "Okay, you're Bucky Barnes."<p>

Bucky nodded. "Yes, I know I am and that's what I've been trying to convince you of, looks like I succeeded."

Jane piped up. "But Sergeant James Barnes fought with the Howling Commandos in World War II when he was only twenty six."

Bucky's voice grew somber. "There were a lot of young men in the Army, a lot younger than me, all of them trying to fight for their country but most of them just ended up dying for somebody else's cause."

Jane cleared her throat her eyes filled anew with tears she refused to let drop. "Yes but that's just it, you don't look a day older than thirty so you can understand our skepticism."

"Twenty eight actually," he corrected her smiling slightly. "And yeah I can understand your position but I just proved to you that I am who I say I am so, you can understand how it can be hard for me to believe that this is the future because looking around this place all I see are a couple of high tech devices and desks, white boards and a whole lot of notes on astronomy? none of which seems very futuristic to me. I mean where are the flying cars and the totalitarian governments and the robotic servants and the ray guns and stuff, where is all that?"

Darcy was looking at him incredulously. "Dude, and I thought that they were overshooting the future when they made Bladerunner!" she exclaimed not without some amusement coloring her tone. "You guys actually thought that seventy years from the 1940s there would flying cars and droids?"

Bucky just shrugged.

"Well we don't have any of those okay," she reconsidered for a moment. "Well maybe the totalitarian government bit but I don't know if those iPod thieving Agents were an actual part of the government or not."

Bucky then went to fold his arms smugly but then realized her had only one arm and frowned down in consternation. "Well, I want to believe you but all that's going through my head right now is that this is a clever HYDRA ploy to get me to reveal the SSRs secrets."

Darcy looked highly affronted at _that _suggestion, so affronted that she just sputtered for a bit at him incoherently before huffing and folding her arms looking pointedly away from him.

Bucky winced at her reaction. "Sorry, I'm overly cautious after my kidnapping," tried feebly Darcy still not looking at him. "for what it's worth, I really don't think that you're HYDRA, I just don't want to be tricked, ya know. Besides you haven't given me any proof to the contrary."

Jane looked warily at Darcy who seemed to about to erupt with indignation. "You want proof Mister James 'I'm So Sure of Myself' Barnes, I'll give you proof." and she stormed off in a huff.

"She's a little firecracker, isn't she?" he said looking at Jane who just raised an eyebrow at him.

"She just didn't take the insinuation from you that we might be part of an evil Nazi organization well, an insinuation that I do not appreciate either, however I am a little less dramatic at showing my indignation at your accusation than Darcy."

Bucky chose to remain silent after that. A few minutes passed by and then Darcy came back into the room, a lock of hair had fallen out of her brushed arrangement and dangled in front of her face, she stared at it in frustration blowing it out of her eyes as she stomped into the room; she couldn't brush the annoying lock away because she was carrying a large silver lock box in her hands. It was embossed with some kind of circular symbol of an eagle looking to the left with horizontal and diagonal patterns on the bottom half of the circle.

Bucky immediately shot up from his seat and started to offer his hand when he realized, quite morosely, that he couldn't offer any help with only one hand. A quiet anger surged through him at his predicament; he hated being useless, he had hated it when Steve was sick and he couldn't do a damn thing to make him better, he had hated it when he had been strapped on that experiment table with Zola and Schmidt experimenting on him and he never hated it more than right now when his own body had betrayed him, he now realized what he was; a handicap and he hated it so much.

His anger must have shown on his face because as Jane took the box from her all of Darcy's residual anger at his accusation drained from her face and a gentle look of sympathy took it's place, Bucky looked away, he could stand the anger but the pitying look made his skin crawl. For the first time he wished that he hadn't survived the fall that had taken his arm, for all his talk about getting back to the SSR he knew he would be just as useless there without his arm as he was here, and his resentment and hate for Zola, Red Skull and HYDRA became tenfold, they might have given him super strength and the ability to survive mortally fatal injuries but what use was surviving if he was an invalid?

He felt Darcy's soft touch on his shoulder and felt a tendril of pleasure as he saw that she touched his left shoulder; she didn't go out of his way to avoid his injury, try to pretend it wasn't there, she acknowledged it. "Bucky, I'm not going to pretend to understand what you're going through, I would never even want to imagine what I would do if I..." she trailed off. "Anyway, I just want to say thank you for trying to help me, to me it's the thought that counts; you wanted to help even though I might think it a little chauvinistic."

Bucky snorted at that and turned to her. "I prefer to think of it as chivalrous, being a gentleman."

"Yeah, you would," she replied. "But seriously Bucky, one of the perks about being in the 21st century is that the prosthetics these days are almost more functional then a real hand, and I can hook you up." she stepped up to his right side and hooked her hand through his right one at the elbow and made him turn around towards Jane who during their heart to heart had unlocked the lock box and was shuffling through the contents.

"Ah yes. Well you still haven't convinced me that I am seventy years in the future yet," he said it in jest all his anger forgotten, it was hard to stay angry in the presence of Darcy's personality.

Darcy scowled at his stubbornness but this time it was more playful. "Well I think it's time we proved it to you, isn't it," she said coyly. "And we'll start by banishing the ridiculous notion of us being HYDRA from your mind, I mean look at me, do you think this" she indicated her body very provocatively. "would look good with a snake emblem or maybe a swastika? I think not."

Bucky was hard pressed not to smile at her antics, he recognized it for what it was though; a distraction to get his mind off of those morbid thoughts he'd been having, he played along though; he didn't want to linger on those thoughts just as much as Darcy didn't.

"You have to know though," he said mischievously as they approached the table where Jane had set the box down. "I never really suspected you to be HYDRA. I mean anyone who's as adorable as you has no business being part of a evil secret organization."

Darcy pouted. "Adorable," she asked. "I'm not adorable! Kinda cute? Maybe. Beautiful? Possibly. Sexy? Most definitely! But not adorable, I am not a twelve year old."

Jane let out a little giggle at Bucky's incredulous expression. "Actually Darcy, while you are definitely all of that, there's just no denying that you are absolutely, most definitely adorable."

Darcy pouted more deeply at being ganged up on like that proving the other two right with her expression.

"So," said Jane pointedly. "What is it that you wanted to show him from here?" she looked down at the box and Bucky followed her gaze.

The box contained three compartments, one of which held a stack of folders all stamped with the same logo as the box and S.H.I.E.L.D written in large block letters at a diagonal angle underneath that it was written - LEVEL 6 AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED. Another compartment, to Bucky's surprise, held a pair of pistols, pistols of the like he had never seen before, they were fitted inside foam molds that looked like it was made especially for them, they were mostly a glowey bluish color and there were three magazines for each, he could see the bullets from the side; each magazine had different color bullets.

The third compartment was recessed and had a lid. Darcy took a ring of keys from Jane and unlocked that lid and opened it to reveal photographs? They were face down in a pile and Darcy picked up the pile, closed the lid and walked to the couch sitting on it and asking wordlessly for Bucky to sit beside her, Jane took a seat on Darcy's other side and split the photographs between them. Darcy handed one to Bucky. It showed Darcy hugging a large handsome blonde man with long hair and beard he seemed to be wearing some kind of medieval viking armor and had a large mallet style hammer in the hand that was not holding Darcy close, he had a large carefree smile on his face as he looked at the camera.

Two things hit him at seeing the picture, the first was amazement at the fact that the picture was colored, all the photographs he had seen were black and white, color photography hadn't been invented where he was from.

The second thing that hit him was an astonishing amount of jealousy at the man holding Darcy so close, making her smile like that. It surprised him the level of emotion it was, he had barely even known the girl for two hours and within that time she had threatened to electrocute him! He had no business feeling possessive of Darcy, but even as he told himself that he looked at the man's left hand with envy, it was wrapped around Darcy's waist; he was never going to be able to hold her close like that.

As he sat there feeling sorry for himself Darcy spoke. "That's Thor," she said cheerfully oblivious to the turmoil inside him, she handed him another photograph. "He's Jane's boyfriend slash manservant slash God of Thunder." And Bucky breathed a sigh of relief as he saw in the next photo the same man, Thor, holding Jane, closer than he had held Darcy, kissing her. Both the photographs seemed to have been taken in the room they were currently sitting the sofa could be seen in the background.

Then he stared at Darcy incredulously. "The God of Thunder?"

Darcy smirked at him. "Later," was all she said and handed him another photograph. "These are Thor's Earthbound friends." The photo showed Thor standing holding his Hammer up high belting some sort of battle cry, beside him was a man who seemed to be in some sort of metal gold and red armor that encased him from head to toe, he was holding the helmet of the suit under his left arm while pointing his right hand at the camera a bluish circular glow seemed to be pulsing in the center of his armored palm, on Thor's other side stood a stunning redhead with a voluptuous figure armed with two lethal looking pistols, she would have been considered tiny especially standing next to the previous two men but the look on her face told him that she could probably give the two a good run for their money and that she was not someone to mess with, she was was the last person standing on the side of Thor, on the other end of the lineup was a man dressed in all black with muscular arms, a quiver of arrows strapped to his back and in his hand with an arrow notched and pointing down was a compound bow, behind them all standing over twelve feet tall was a vaguely man shaped thing which seemed to be made primarily of muscle, it's skin was a very angry looking green which seem to match it's mood because it looked very very pissed off. And standing in the center of this rag-tag group of strange people was Steve Rogers or more accurately Captain America.

Bucky looked at Darcy in astonishment, Darcy didn't notice; she was pointing at the photo. "The Avengers," she said. And I think you recognize their leader or should I say Captain." Her voice was very smug. "Now do you really think that Captain America would associate with the boyfriend and friend of a HYDRA Agent? Yeah I didn't think so."

"Steve's alive," Bucky asked his voice hoarse. As he had said before he never really thought they were HYDRA and he realized that if they weren't HYDRA then they wouldn't have a reason to lie to him about what year it was, there were certainly much more believable lies out there than the fact that he somehow time traveled into the next century. And if that was true then there was a very good chance that everyone he had known from back in his time were probably no longer living including Steve, he had never really managed to find much about the effects of the Super Soldier Serum on his friends body but as far as he knew immortality was not in the books pertaining to its effects. "How?"

Jane piped up at this moment. "He was frozen in ice when he crashed a HYDRA plane in the Arctic ocean, Howard Stark went on expeditions for decades trying to find him but he was unsuccessful, but SHIELD never stopped searching for him even after Howard had died and two years ago they found him buried in ice and perfectly preserved. They thought he was dead and thawed him out to give him a proper burial, turns out as soon as his lungs thawed he started breathing again, apparently the serum allowed him to survive the crash and the freezing keeping him in a sort of cryogenic hibernation for over seventy years."

Darcy scowled at her. "Not a fan girl, huh?"

Jane had the decency to blush. "I was curious," was all she said.

"Mmhm," Darcy hummed nodding knowingly.

Bucky was puzzled at the byplay but didn't inquire, instead he pointed to the rest of the group. "The Avengers?" he asked curious.

Darcy nodded. "Couple months after Cap was thawed out Thor's brother Loki attacked SHIELD and stole the Cosmic Cube."

Bucky sucked a sharp breath in at the mention of the Cube, so many lives had been lost because of that thing in his time and it seemed like it was still causing trouble.

"The Avengers were assembled to help recover it," continued Darcy choosing thankfully to ignore his gasp. "apparently they didn't get along very well at the beginning but when the shit hit the fan they were the ones who fought against the Alien Army that Loki summoned using the Cube and defeated them. They stopped Loki and saved the world, they're heroes."

Bucky looked at Steve in the picture. "And Steve?" he asked Darcy. "How is he?" In the photo Steve's smile looked fixed, it reminded him of the photos he posed for back when he was boosting the Army's morale; it looked fake.

Darcy shrugged. "To tell you the truth we don't really know," she replied her tone apologetic. "We've never met him, only Thor did and he left after helping them without contacting us."

Bucky saw Jane's face fall as she mentioned Thor's actions, he chose not to say anything.

"To be fair though," Darcy said. "This is a press release photo of them, the Hulk behind them is photoshopped in."

"Photoshopped?" asked Bucky looking at the large green thing, the look in its eyes sent shivers down his spine."

"His photo was taken separately during the battle and the rest of the Avengers posed in a studio, they then used a computer to merge the two photos and this is what you get."

Bucky nodded in understanding marveling at the handiwork, it looked completely authentic.

Darcy shuffled through the stack in her hands and gave him another photo, this one was seemed to be of the Avengers again, well five of the Avengers and a man with lightly graying hair and spectacles and a statuesque woman with strawberry blonde hair and a radiant smile, this was a more laid back photo with the team minus the Hulk relaxing in what looked like an apartment building penthouse suite, they were seated around in arranged couches and sofas, some of them like the man who had been wielding the Bow and Arrows was seated on the floor at the redheaded woman's feet while the tall strawberry blonde was seated in an armchair daintily holding a cocktail glass filled with some kind of blue liquid, the man in the metal suit was standing in the center holding a glass of what Bucky assumed was whiskey and making some sort of toast.

Steve and Thor were seated on one of the couches Thor had his arm boisterously around Steve pulling him close and holding up a large mug of what looked like beer in his hand while Steve was sporting a bashful but genuine smile raising his own glass which contained some kind of dark fizzing liquid. The Archer and the red head were both holding glasses filled with clear liquid and while not smiling looked more at ease than they did in the previous picture. The man with the glasses was holding a cup of tea and was smiling gently at the group.

"This is from their Facebook page, that's a social network medium through which you can make friends, share pictures and news with anyone all over the world," explained Darcy. "It's a more laid back view of the team and this one shows the real Captain I think instead of the one he presents to the world."

Bucky nodded. "That's more like the Steve I know," he looked at the photo for a while just staring at the group that Steve had surrounded himself with, he remembered a time when Steve had confessed to him that even with the Howling Commandos he didn't feel like he actually belonged, he cared about them and was honored that they thought of him as a leader but he knew that they saw him as a hero, as Captain America when he just wanted to be Steve Rogers, he had lamented that it seemed like it was always going to be Bucky and him against the world. It seemed like Steve had finally found a place where he belonged.

"You want to go to him," It wasn't a question. Bucky just nodded not looking up until Jane got to her feet.

"Well," she said walking towards the door. "I guess I need to make a few calls then."

As she left Bucky looked to Darcy in curiosity. "Jane has high enough clearance to get into contact with Stark Industries and be actually taken seriously," she said promptly.

"Stark Industries?" he asked looking back down at the photo of the man standing in the center; he had thought the man's face looked familiar. "So that means..."

Darcy nodded enthusiastically. "Howard Starks son Tony," she filled in for him. "he's a genius level engineer with multiple masters and PhDs, for most of his life he sold the government weapons until he was kidnapped by a terrorist organization and forced to make a weapon for them, Tony refused and made his first Ironman suit to escape from them, when he came back to the States he told the press that he had seen US soldiers being killed by his own weapons and he shut down the weapons division of Stark Industries, from then on he had started concentrating his efforts on providing clean energy, but he also decided to take down the terrorist who had gotten hands on his weapons, to that end he made the second and third Ironman suits and blew up their base of operations. Ever since then he has taken the front seat to seeing to America's defense and has immensely helped the war effort."

Bucky looked at Darcy in wonder and a stab of jealousy at Howards son. "And you memorized his entire biography, did you?"

Darcy shrugged unrepentantly at his jibe. "Didn't have to," she replied. "the man is a cultural and economical icon, not to mention a superhero, he's kind of hard to miss and mostly everyone who's anyone knows his story. He's also a bit of an ass though, Jane definitely hates him; more so now that he keeps on asking her to come work for him almost every week, Jane thinks the offer is only there because of her connection to Thor and she refuses to go corporate."

Bucky raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment, he didn't know anything about Jane's work or Stark's integrity to really bring forth an informed commentary on the subject, instead he looked back down at the photo and asked the question that he had been itching to ask ever since she gave it to him.

"So where's the large green..." he trailed off questioningly.

"The Hulk," said Darcy her eyes twinkling as if she has been waiting for this. "He's sitting right there drinking tea, didn't you notice?" she asked mischievously.

Bucky gave her a calculating look and looked at the bespectacled man, out of all of them _he_ seemed to be the most composed, almost serene as he smiled benignly at his companions. He looked back up at her. "You have got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

Darcy shook her head grinning. "Nope, that's Dr Bruce Banner," she said bouncing in her seat a little. "he was involved in a lab accident that caused him to be exposed to lethal amounts of Gamma radiation."

Bucky winced; he had been privy to a lot of inhuman experiments being performed on the POWs when he was captive and he remembered Zola experimenting with Gamma radiation along with a lot of other dangerous things. The results of those experiments were never pretty.

Darcy nodded now a little subdued. "He could have died," she said softly. "most experts say he _should_ have died but instead now whenever he gets angry he turns into..."

"The Hulk," said Bucky nodding completing her unfinished sentence. "he can change back and forth between the two?"

Darcy nodded. "But not always at will, and he can only barely control it, the... um... Other Guy, Jane says that when he involuntarily changes Bruce doesn't have any control, it's all Hulk. Jane is a huge fan of Dr Banners work, he's a biochemist with genius level IQ and he also holds three PhDs and an actual medical degree, ever since he came out of hiding Jane's been picking his brain on all sorts of research so she has a direct line to the Avengers."

"So that's who she went to contact?" At Darcy's nod Bucky smiled gratefully and looked back down at the photo. "What about the rest of them," he asked her and settled back to listen to Darcy describe the rest of Avengers and their role in the Battle of New York while they waited for Jane to return.

* * *

><p>Bruce was just setting up the last test tubes in the centrifuge to begin the DNA analysis of their new visitor in his reinforced lab two floors down from the penthouse.<p>

"JARVIS, start the analysis and cross reference with existing samples of Agent Margaret Carter from SHIELDs medical records, also contact the Lisner Louise Dickson Hurt home and request a DNA sample and full medical records on the Margaret Carter residing there, give them the usual Stark Industries clearance and have them sign all the necessary NDAs this is level ten classified.

_'As you wish Dr Banner, also Dr Foster is on hold for you from New Mexico, sir.'_

Bruce looked puzzled for a moment; Jane Foster tended to call on him at odd hours all the time but he didn't think there was any pending research he had for her, he shrugged maybe she wanted to consult on something else. "Put her through JARVIS," Jane was one of the few people, including Tony, who could keep up with him intellectually, considering she was half his and Tony's age spoke a lot about her potential, he always enjoyed his talks with the ever enthusiastic Dr Foster.

"Dr Banner," came Jane's voice through JARVIS' comm. "Hi, it's Jane."

"Jane," Bruce replied. "It's good to hear from you again, and I told you its fine if you call me Bruce."

"Uh, yeah okay Bruce," she said hesitantly.

"So what can I help you with today?" he asked being accommodating.

"Well, this isn't a research related call Bruce," she replied sparking his curiosity.

"Oh," he said. "Then is it about Thor?" he asked when he couldn't think of any other reason for her calling him.

He heard her sigh and immediately regretted his question, in all the time that he had been communicating with her, not one time had Jane ever mentioned or inquired about Thor, he of course knew what Jane was to The Asgardian, mainly because all Thor talked about when not marveling over strange Midgardian customs was Lady Jane this and Lady Jane that and how Lady Jane was the most beautiful and intelligent woman in all of the nine realms, before he had left with Loki.

He would have gladly mentioned this to her if it weren't for that one time he called Jane for an update and her assistant/friend picked up, they got to talking and Darcy warned him that the fastest way to end a conversation with Jane these days was to mention even one word about Thor, she immediately clammed up and refused to say anything for hours. And yet here he was mentioning Thor to her when he had been told specifically not to.

"No, Bruce," she said her tone clipped. "It's not about him."

"Sorry," said Bruce contrite, shaking his head at his own stupidity.

Another sigh and then. "It's fine," she said eventually and continued. "I'm actually calling to talk to Captain Rogers, could you help me get in contact with him in any way?"

"Steve?" Bruce frowned growing concerned. "Jane what's this about?"

Jane blew out a breath and said. "We... uh... found a man in the desert behind our lab. He... uh... claims to be Sergeant James Barnes of the Howling Commandos, only he barely looks thirty and he's missing an arm and he also wants to talk to Captain America..."

Bruce listened to her recite all this with growing horror and when Jane's voice trailed off his heart rate monitor snapped him into action; he was almost at 75bpm, he took a couple of calming breaths and watched as the numbers receded slowly back towards 60 and spoke to Jane urgently.

"Jane whatever you do, do not approach him, he's a very dangerous man. Get as far away from him as possible and get help... "

"Bruce, what are you talking about!" said Jane and Bruce closed his eyes begging for patience. "We've talked to him, he's a good guy, Darcy's with him in the next room, she's showing him pictures of the Avengers, he's Captain Rogers best friend..."

"Jane whatever story he's being telling you it doesn't matter; you can't believe him," replied Bruce. "JARVIS get me Tony," he said anxiously to the AI. "Jane, do you know anything about the Winter Soldier?

"Yeah, he's supposed to be a ghost right? A super assassin? But Bruce what does this have to do with James, listen he says he's from... " But Bruce cut her off.

"Jane listen to me!" he nearly yelled his heart rate spiking once more. "Whatever he's told you is a lie, Steve met Bucky Barnes during the fall of SHIELD, Jane he was working _for_ HYDRA it's him Jane! Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier."

* * *

><p>Jane felt the phone drop from her grasp as she turned towards the room she had come from and realized that she had just left her best friend alone in the room with a killer.<p>

**XKXKXKXKXK**


	9. The Bus at the Triskelion

**Destiny Intervenes**

_**Authors Notes:** From this chapter on-wards this story will feature a lot of events and characters from the Marvel TV Series - Agents of SHIELD; right now there will be spoilers from Season 1 of the series I do not think it will be hard to follow without having watched it but it would make much more sense if you did._

**_Previously:_**

_As he let go to allow her to open the door Natasha looked at him sternly. "You're still not allowed to die out there Rogers," she said to him. "because after that the only person allowed to kill you is me."_

_Steve nodded once more. "Yes ma'am." And both, ignoring the wide eyed Agent witnessing the weird scene, opened the door and ran out onto the roof to confront the new arrivals._

* * *

><p><strong>The Bus at the Triskelion<strong>

The new director of SHIELD looked out at the blue sky's and sighs. The events of the last few weeks had taken its toll on him, as much as he might think otherwise he was not as young as he once was, oh he was still on the upper side of fifty but only by a few years, the scar atop his heart itched and he might have gone to rub at it if he didn't fear triggering the pain from all the other bruises he had acquired in the fight he had been involved in.

Contrary to popular belief even Phil Coulson got hurt when being thrown around a room by a super powered being drugged up on synthetic alien blood.

The fight with Garrett hadn't been more than 24 hours ago and he felt like shit. Coulson didn't dare take a moment to lie down though; he had gone into that compound determined to do what he needed to do to stop Garrett but he had walked out of the compound as Director of SHIELD and now he had more responsibilities than he ever had and only five people at his disposal, he needed to start recruiting for the Agency but as he turned around to face his desk he couldn't help but groan out a painful protest as the bruises on his stomach protested.

He pressed the comms button to talk to the pilot. "May, how far are we out?"

"We'll be entering DC airspace in 90 minutes, sir." Came the answer through the comms.

"Thanks May," he replied. "Tell the team to get ready, we want to hit the ground running."

"Will do," said May and the feed cut off.

Coulson sighs once again and decides he's put it off long enough, he loosened his tie and pulls it off over his head, he unbuttoned his shirt and drapes it over the back rest of his chair and examines his torso in the mirror opposite his shelf of trinkets that he had glued down.

His entire upper chest is purple and blue and his right arm is almost black with bruising, it was the arm that Garrett had wrenched and then used to throw him almost fifteen feet across the room and into a wall.

Coulson reached into an upper desk draw and pulled out small tub of salve. It was one of Simmons inventions; an improvement on the pharmaceutical bruise remover with ingredients that big pharma couldn't even dream of acquiring, but it worked well enough.

He was just about to dab some on his chest when there was a knock and Skye entered the room without waiting for his permission and gasped at the sight of his bare and bruised torso.

Coulson, unknown to Skye, held a lot of admiration for the young girl he had picked up on his first mission as part of the Bus. The woman was definitely attractive but aside from that it was her carefree attitude and the love of life and freedom of self that pulled at Coulson's heart strings and made him pay attention. She had grown in spades in the last few months, going from untrustworthy affiliate of the Rising Tide to an integral member of his team that he didn't believe would function half as well if she decided to suddenly up and leave.

It was a fear that Coulson had had these past few weeks as he watched her struggle to deal with the discovering of her past, being mortally wounded and then save by an alien drug, and then being made to care for a team member and soon realizing that that man was actually the enemy.

He knew that the rings around her eyes were getting darker; she was not getting enough sleep and it was taking its toll but still her sunny perception never diminished, she still had a sense of contentment around her as if she acknowledged that life was sometimes shitty but you didn't need to dwell on it too much, you could look at the brighter side of things and move forward. She didn't realize just how many cues he took from her in his way of living ever since she had come aboard.

He was pretty sure if it hadn't been for Skye then the revelations surrounding his resurrection would have had him in a rut that he doubted he would have gotten out of as soon as he did and it all thanks to the young lady who was now staring at him with horrified tear filled eyes and her hand on her mouth trying to choke down a sob.

He never could stand her tears and so he tried to make light of the situation. "I don't look that bad, do I?" he asked nonchalantly trying not to be self-conscious about being half naked in front of the girl he was half inappropriately infatuated with and half genuinely cared about.

"AC," she said softly walking inside and shutting the door behind her. She glanced at the door for a moment. "I'm sorry about barging in, I... I just... oh Coulson!" she let out in a whispered gasp.

He supposed he should reprimand her for walking into a superior officers office without permission but he knew as well as anyone else on the plane that unless on a mission they were more of a family than a team of Agents and besides he could never bring himself to reprimand Skye; the only time he did was when he felt she truly deserved it and he admitted that a small part had been jealous of seeing her in Lydons arms; Mays surveillance of _that_ incident had been very thorough with video evidence and all, it was not something he liked to think about.

"It's fine," he said shaking away thoughts of wringing Miles Lydons neck. "I was just about to apply Simmons' bruise remover but I guess it can wait," he put the tub down and went to his chair. "What did you want Skye?" he asked as he picked up his shirt.

"Wait!" she let out as Coulson started to put on his shirt trying not to wince, he paused looking at Skye with one eyebrow raised.

"I...umm...I could help," she said hesitantly and then gained confidence. "with the salve I mean. Those bruises look nasty AC and I'm sure you can't really apply it on yourself without any pain."

Coulson got a brief image in his head of Skye's delicate fingers, so steadfast and sure on the keys of a keyboard, flitting across his skin and it sent a shiver down his back. He gulped. "I don't think that would be appropriate," he said gently not wanting to smart.

Skye seemed unfazed. "It's just that Simmons has been giving me some help in first aid and stuff and I'm pretty sure I could help." She paused and looked at him earnestly and Coulson cursed mentally. "Please AC, let me help."

Coulson shook his head ruefully; he never could refuse her. He shrugged his shirt back off and picked up the the tub. "I admit," he said. "that there are places that I can't reach myself..."

Skye snorted as she took the salve and opened the lid. "Is it any wonder? Jesus AC you're black and blue, of course you're not going to be able to reach all this," she pointed vaguely at the bruises. "God why didn't you say anything , Simmons could've..."

"Simmons has got enough on her plate right now with Fitz, Skye I wouldn't have done her any good pointing out my own hurts, Fitz deserves her full attention."

"You know if you weren't covered in bruises already then I would smack you," she replied. "You yourself said we were family and family doesn't hide it if their hurting from each other, Simmons would have wanted to know."

Coulson bit his lip to stop himself from retorting that it went both ways, that she needed to talk about her hurts too, but Phil Coulson wasn't ever accused of being tactless so instead of taking the offensive he tried diplomacy.

"I know, I'm sorry. I should've told Simmons but now what's done is done and I need to get this done before we land so..." he trailed off looking at her pointedly.

Skye nodded. "Fine," she huffed. "Insincere apology accepted," she said tersely. "But just so you know _Director_ Coulson, as soon as we're back up in the air, I'm hauling your ass down to the med bay, is that clear."

Coulson nodded solemnly trying and failing to keep a steady poker face.

Skye scowled at him. "Now, d'ya want me to do your front or back first?"

"Back?"

Skye's eyes widened. "You seriously don't know that you have as much bruises, on your back as your front?"

Coulson shrugged and said. "I thought there were a few but..."

"Urgh," Skye grunted in frustration. "Turn around Coulson, just... just turn."

Coulson decided to do as he was told and turned. He let out a quiet hiss though as Skye's fingers made contact with his skin, they were small, warm and slippery from the salve. Skye paused and muttered a pained apology stopping her movements.

"It's okay," he said perfectly willing for her to believe that his exaltation was one of pain instead of pleasure as her hand touched his bare skin. "Just... just go slow," he said in a tense whisper. The air was charged with tension; Coulson felt that if he made one wrong move it would break and then there would be a whole lot of awkward to deal with so he kept quiet and silently reveled in her gentle, caring ministrations.

His breath caught in his throat though as Skye leaned forward onto her tip toes to reach his shoulders unintentionally pressing her entire front to his back, he had bite back a moan and cursed his body; he was supposed to be in his yesteryear's, his body was not supposed to respond like this to a young woman's touch but he could not deny that ever since he had met Skye, ever since he had first touched her, no matter how innocently, there was a fire that was lit inside him and it grew brighter and brighter the more he got to know her.

He let out the breath he was holding as Skye dropped back down onto her heels and tapped him on the shoulder telling him silently to turn around, perhaps she recognized the tension and didn't want to break it by speaking. He tried valiantly to keep his eyes off of her, tried to look at the table, the window, hell he even tried staring at his own two feet but still his eyes strayed to her.

Skye to her credit never looked up from her task; meticulously and with great care applying the salve to his bruises and rubbing it in. He watched her eyes as they traveled up his torso and realized that her pupils were dilated and her breathing was almost labored, his breath hitched in response as he realized that he wasn't the only one affected by their closeness.

Skye's fingers traced his scar and she splayed her hands atop his heart as if to ensure that he was in fact alive and then finally she lifted her eyes to his and they froze. It seemed as if time itself had frozen the moment their gaze met and they knew, at that moment they both knew that there was something between them that went further than friendship or camaraderie, _definitely_ further than the superior-subordinate relationship they presented to the world and until now they were both at a loss as to what to do with it.

Until now. Their heads seemed to tilt out of their own accord; hers up and his down and they met in the middle their lips a hairs breadth apart, a final decision needed to be made. They both looked into each others eyes to see if they both really wanted this. Whatever they were looking for they found in the silent assurance of Coulson's eyes and in the restrained sparkle of Skye's and their lips met and then...

"Sir, we're approaching the Triskelion ETA 10 minutes."

They broke contact and groaned as May's voice blared through the speakers and Skye's forehead fell onto Coulson's shoulder in mortification, it was as though May herself had walked in the room and successfully cooled the growing temperatures of their bodies.

Coulson let out an embarrassing chuckle and buried his hand in Skye's long brown locks. Skye soon pulled away just in time for May to let out another, "Sir? Phil?"

Skye disengaged herself from Coulson and let him answer May.

"Uh Yes, May thank you," he said watching as a red faced Skye tried to get away but he held on to her hand. Coulson pulled on her hand once and shook his head imploring her non-verbally not to go. Skye sighed and nodded her reluctant acceptance and he let go of her hand. "Any contact with the tower?"

"None sir," replied May. "The tower seems to have taken a hit in any case sir, we have no way of contacting anyone down there."

Coulson nodded. "Please inform the team," he continued on to May. "And tell Agent Triplett that we may meet some resistance, you and him will be taking point, ICERS only though, we're don't want to shoot friendlies, I'll meet the team down at the Communication Centre in five."

"Yes, sir," said May and cut off the feed leaving a deafening silence in her wake.

Skye twisted her hands together for moment and then seemed to decide to go for broke. "So... uh... _that_ happened," she let out a soft laugh that felt forced and died down too quickly.

Coulson grabbed his shirt from his chair and started to put it on, being half naked was definitely not helping matters, he couldn't quite hide the wince this time but Skye was next to him in an instant pulling his shirt over his bruised frame and started to button him up. Coulson reached up and stilled her hands forcing her to meet his eyes. Her gaze was frightened but also hopeful, he imagined that he didn't look much better.

"We can't ignore this Skye," he told her and watched as she swallowed nervously before nodding.

"No," she said, her voice came out hoarse, wrought with tension. "No we can't."

Coulson nodded and started buttoning up himself up watching Skye follow his hands in sure practiced motions, he tucked the shirt in his pants and tilted Skye's chin up, he leaned in waiting for her to push him away but she didn't and he closed the distance planting a soft kiss full of promise on her lips. He pulled back and found her watching him with a soft smile.

He smiled back. "If we can't ignore it then we talk about it," he said to her as he picked up his tie and looped it around his collar. "Once we get back on board, okay?" Skye nodded and Coulson let out a relieved sigh that he hadn't ruined anything between them. "Alright then." He walked over to the door and opened it for her asking her to walk in front of him.

As she reached the door though she snaked her hand around his still loose tie and pulled him in for a much more smoldering kiss than the last. "Sure we'll talk AC," she said as she pulled back. "But I hope that's not all you've got in mind."

Coulson gulped as Skye walked down the stairs from his office and extra swing to her hips and he groaned. Just what had he gotten himself into this time. He shook thoughts of tempting brunettes from his mind, or tried to anyway, and descended the stairs after her. He had a mission to brief.

* * *

><p>Guns were poised and aimed dead center at chests and their was complete utter silence on the Triskelion rooftop. Three ICERs against two SHIELD issued custom modified Glock G19 pistols and a Captain America with a Vibranium shield he had retrieved from where it had embedded itself in the concrete, behind them stood the Agent with his side arm drawn, almost vibrating with nervous energy but his hand was steady as he aimed at the new comers, overall Natasha thought they stood a pretty good chance at taking them on, that is until a voice called out from inside the Bus.<p>

"Hold your fire," it said and Natasha's ears picked up the voice loud and clear, it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up; _she knew that voice_, but instead of lowering her gun she tightened her grip as a figure descended the ramp of the Bus holstering his ICER, passing between the two Agents taking point and coming to stand in front of them, he signaled to the two Agents and they dropped their guns but didn't holster them, he raised his hands in an innocent gesture and spoke.

"Hey Natasha, long time..."

She took one step forward her gun still raised and spoke in a clear flat voice. "Who. The hell. Are you?"

He just smiled a very familiar smile and said. "You know me Tasha," he said softly. Beside her Steve shifted restlessly.

"Don't call me that," she said her voice cold; only _he_ called her that and _he_ was _dead_, whoever this imposter was he was not going to disgrace her memory of him. "Phil Coulson is dead, whatever HYDRA trick you're using to impersonate him, it's not going to work. But," she smirked at the imposter; a deadly foreboding smirk, that would have made even Steve run for the hills if he wasn't on her side. "If you think you can hold your own against me _and_ Captain America then by all means..." she made a 'come at me' gesture, gun still in hand, and waited.

Not-Coulson shook his head still smiling. "We have no intention of taking on the Black Widow _and_ Captain America and embarrassing ourselves, Tasha."

"I don't know boss," said the heavy set black man behind Not-Coulson, a specialist by the looks of him. "I reckon I could take her."

"Don't be stupid," said Not Coulson. "Romanoff would run rings around you Trip, she's called the Black Widow for a reason." He turned back to her. "Besides we're not here to fight with our own people."

"Natasha," said Steve. "You know this guy."

Natasha watched as Not-Coulson frowned at his words and responded. "He's an impostor, I used to know the guy he looks like, he was my SO and more importantly a close friend, he was killed almost a year ago."

"It's true that Loki _did_ kill me Tasha," said Not-Coulson, his patient and completely unconcerned tone grating on her nerves, it reminded her forcefully of her early days in SHIELD and how patient Coulson had been with her. "Stabbed me right through the heart, but Fury brought me back."

"Back from the _dead_?" asked Natasha her voice still cold but now with a sarcastic edge to it. "You've got to have a better story than that! At least a little bit more believable then apparent resurrection."

Finally Not-Coulson seemed to lose his serene composure, he sighed and she tensed waiting for the attack but it never came, instead he spoke again this time in a dull almost apologetic tone. "December '99, The Rouge," and Natasha froze her green eyes locking sharply with his blues as he continued. "Something happened, something that made Barton break my jaw, something that we promised never to talk about again."

Natasha's eyes widened as she looked at him in horror because suddenly there was no doubt in her mind, it _was him,_ it was Coulson because only three people knew about that incident and she knew that neither one of them had broken that promise to never mention it, not even to Fury.

"Coulson?" she asked hoarsely her voice wrought with emotion.

Coulson spread his hands his posture imploring. "It's really me Natasha."

And before she knew it she had thrown a punch that landed straight on Coulson cheek sending him careening back into his Agents she heard someone let out an indignant shriek from somewhere inside the plane and watched with satisfaction as Coulson clutched his jaw in pain.

"Nice to see you too," he said with a little effort standing up straight again and adjusting his tie. He didn't call attention to the bruise now forming on his left cheek. "Well that went as well as exp-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as a black and brown blur shot past him and managed to somehow, despite her enhanced speed and agility, sock Natasha in the jaw.

"Skye!" yelled out Coulson. "No."

'Skye' didn't listen to him as Natasha watched with a sense of morbid fascination as the slip of a girl in some sort of tactical gear pulled back her fist for another punch. The Black Widow is known on the rare occasion to be caught unawares, but never twice in as many minutes and as this 'Skye' pulled back her second punch, her form totally off, she prepared herself to deliver a world of hurt when...

"Skye," said Coulson once more and pulled the girl back before she could try and hit Natasha again. "Skye. Skye, stop."

"Let me go, AC," she spat out glaring at Natasha. "She has no right to hit you."

"Actually Skye, she does."

That answer took all the fight out of the girl and she stared at Coulson incredulously.

"AC no," she said in a half whisper. "That was Fury, all of it was Fury and you're already hurt as it is."

"Be that is it may Skye, it was also my choice not to contact the Avengers and that's on me."

Skye nodded subdued but then turned back to Natasha and the fire was back in her eyes. "You lay one finger on him again and I'll..."

Natasha raised an eyebrow at her. "You'll what?" she laced her question with mocking laughter. "I barely felt that hit you just snuck in." Which wasn't entirely true but _she_ didn't need to know that.

Skye's glare intensified "I may not be able to fight you," she said fiercely. "But I hacked into SHIELD from my van with a laptop I won from a bet, believe me I can make life hell for you."

Natasha's eyebrow didn't twitch but she tried not to smile, the girl had fire in her that's for sure and she played to her strengths and she didn't get cowed by the fear of the Black Widow, she'll have to keep an eye on this 'Skye' she seemed to be an interesting one.

"Skye," said Coulson once more in reprimand and turned to Natasha. "Tasha she won't do anything of the sort." He pulled Skye back behind him while she scowled heavily at her.

Natasha raised her eyebrow again this time at Coulson. "I don't think that's going to be your call," she turned to Skye. "Don't worry, unless Coulson gives me a reason I'm not going to hit him again." Skye seemed to lose some of her glower but the look she was giving him was definitely not friendly.

As usual, even though he was not the Steve she knew, it was Cap who decided to defuse the situation. "Look from what I gather none of us are enemies, am I right?" When all of them, even Skye, reluctantly nodded Cap took charge. "Alright then, I think we should all," and he looked meaningfully at Natasha. "Put our guns away and talk like civil people okay?" Another series of nods followed slow holstering of weapons with two identical Glocks being the least to be sheathed.

"Okay then," said Natasha. "Coulson you're alive and what else? Why did you come here? You must know that this facility is no longer functional."

"It's Director Coulson now, actually."

The correction didn't actually come from him but from one of his Agents; the one still standing in the shade of the plane with her face partially hidden but once she said her words she stepped forward and Natasha's lips stretched into a thin line.

"May?" she asked her surprise lasting for only a second before her lips curved into a rare smile.

"Romanoff." May stated with a nod.

And for the first time since the Bus had landed on Triskelion, Natasha actually relaxed; it was because she knew without a doubt that it was Melinda May standing in front of her, she guessed it was because she was a warrior just like Natasha; they had trained together and fought together; a lot of her early days missions at SHIELD overlapped with Mays and she had been there for the aftermath of Bahrain, she had no doubt that HYDRA had technology that could successfully mimic a person's appearance, hell _SHIELD_ had one of those, but there was no one who could mimic the way May held herself, moved and functioned, that came from years of experience at being Melinda May and Natasha knew that Mays loyalty to SHIELD could never be in question; she didn't have any emotional ties for an Incentives Program to coerce her and she was honorable to a fault.

It sometimes caused friction between members in her team because she was first and foremost loyal to the Director, it was a little similar to the relationship between Hill and Fury; they both might question Fury's actions but never his orders, and they would never betray him or SHIELD.

"You should have come forward before May, all this," she indicated Coulson and Skye. "wouldn't have been necessary."

"Then it wouldn't have been as entertaining as it was," was her tacit reply with no hint of amusement in her tone and yet she made Natasha want to crack up laughing.

"That's true," relied Natasha with a straight face, she turned back to Coulson. "You never said why you were here _Director_ Coulson, I'm assuming we have Fury to thank for that?"

Coulson nodded. "It's not a very welcome position given Fury's involvement in my resurrection, but I figure the rebuilding of SHIELD is bigger than the both of our egos."

Natasha smirked at him. "Don't let Fury hear you say that, he might take offense." And just like that they were back to that familiar relationship that Natasha valued and had thought she had lost forever when Fury had told them about Coulson's 'death'.

Coulson then decided to answer her other question. "We came here to look for specs on a cloaking device," he said. "kind of like the ones on the Helicarrier and the Quinjets, even though our main weapons and tech engineer is currently out of commission, we figured that the Triskelion might have some data for us, we actually expected this place to be abandoned, at least that's what Fury told me."

"For the Bus?" she asked nodding towards the GlobeMaster.

Coulson nodded. "Yeah a lot more people recognize this Bus than we'd like," he replied. "Talbot has actually ordered it to be shot down if sighted so we're looking to hide plain sight, at least until we can rebuild enough to get negotiations going with the Pentagon again. As long as we're labeled as terrorists though, we need to lay low."

Natasha turned back towards the Agent who was by now just completely confused not knowing what to think. "Agent today is your last day is that right?" he nodded with certainty. "Good, then if you want to retire with no hiccups then forget all that you saw and heard here after you get Director Coulson's team what they require, clear?" he nodded again shaking slightly under her scrutiny, she nodded back satisfied and turned back to Coulson.

He smiled back at her and nodded at the girl beside him. "Skye has the requirements with her," he shared a significant look with the girl and urged her to go with the Agent. Skye nodded and after casting Natasha a withering look moved off to follow the Agent back down the stairs.

"You trust him?" he asked Natasha indicating the stairwell leading down.

"No," she answered honestly.

Coulson nodded. "Skye can take care of herself but," he turned to the specialist. "Ghost them, keep your distance but once Skye's done escort her back to the Bus." He nodded a "Yes, boss," and went after the two.

"A little protective are we, Coulson?"

Coulson nodded definitively. "I think we all can safely say that Skye is a very important member of our team. We almost lost her once, we're not prepared to risk her again."

Natasha looked to May in surprise, Melinda May was famous for keeping it business only, there was no place for attachments for her on a mission but Natasha saw that she didn't refute Coulson's claim, in fact she thought she detected a hint of approval of his statement. Skye was _definitely_ interesting now.

She looked to Coulson again. "You planning to loiter."

Coulson shook his head. "Just grab and go," he said. "Why you need a ride?"

She looked towards the gate of the Triskelion and frowned; there were reporters everywhere with news vans and TV cameras pointed straight at the building, not that way then. Besides all her plans for the day was canceled as soon as the second Captain America fell into the river.

"Yeah," she answered. "So does he." She nodded at Steve.

Coulson's face lit up as he finally had a reason to look at Steve. "Captain Rogers, it's an honor working with you again, sir. I'm sorry for the deception concerning my death, I assure you that I played no part in it except not informing the Avengers of my still alive condition as soon as possible." He said all this very fast in his rare fan boy tone before Natasha could stop him.

Steve gave Natasha a bemused look but still shook Coulson's offered hand. "The honors mine Director _Coulson_, is it?"

Coulson's eyes widened at his response. "Oh no sir, Phil is fine or Coulson which ever, that's fine."

May actually snorted at that and shook her head exchanging amused looks with Natasha. "Skye would hate to have missed this."

And Natasha had to shake her head at that, a lot had changed. She decided to break up Coulson's nervous rant about losing his collection of Vintage Captain America trading cards before getting him to sign it the last time they met and clear the air.

"Coulson, Steve isn't," she paused trying to find the words." he isn't the Captain America you met during the Avengers Initiative."

And Coulson and May looked at her in confusion. "What?"

So Natasha told them of the events of the last two hours in detail deciding to omit the kiss and her feelings on _that_ in the recount, once she was done they both looked at Captain America in shock.

"You're kidding me," said May. "You're telling me that somehow you _time traveled_ into the future?"

Steve shrugged a little nervous under May's sharp eyes. "I...uh... I think so," he said nodding.

"Impossible," she said immediately.

Natasha nodded. "Yeah but last I checked it was impossible for a man to come back from the dead as well." she looked pointedly at Coulson, who weirdly had gone completely slack faced. "Coulson?" she asked hesitantly. He mumbled something that was hard for her to hear. "What? Coulson what did you say?"

"Two Captain America's?" he whispered breathlessly and Natasha winced. "Natasha are you really telling me that we now have not one but two Captain America's here in the same century?"

Natasha nodded. "That's what I said," she confirmed.

And she startled as a grin spread across his face in unholy glee and he said in a strangled whisper that nevertheless carried to their ears. "HYDRA won't know what hit them."

**XKXKXKXKXK**

_**End Notes:** __So I don't really know how well the Skoulson would go down but I am comfortable with that pairing, its less cliche to me then Philinda or FitzSimmons and definitely better than SkyeWard. Hope you enjoyed and please comment; they help me so much. 'Til next time._


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